Data from: Widespread grounding line retreat of Totten Glacier, East Antarctica, over the 21st century ...

• Main Authors: Pelle, Tyler, Morlighem, Mathieu, Seroussi, Helene, Nakayama, Yoshihiro
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2021
• Subjects: FOS Earth and related environmental sciences; Antarctic; East Antarctica; The Antarctic; Totten Glacier; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelf; Totten Ice Shelf
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7280/d1kd7c; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.7280/D1KD7C

Totten Glacier, the primary ice discharger of East Antarctica, contains 3.85 m sea level rise equivalent ice mass (SLRe) and has displayed ocean-driven dynamic change since at least the early 2000s. We project Totten’s evolution through 2100 in a fully coupled ice-ocean model, forced at the ocean boundaries with anomalies in CMIP6 projected temperature, salinity, and velocity. Consistent with previous studies, the Antarctic Slope Current continues to modulate warm water inflow towards Totten in future simulations. Warm water (-0.5-1oC) accesses Totten’s sub-ice shelf cavity through depressions along the eastern ice front, driving sustained retreat of Totten’s eastern grounding zone that cannot be captured in uncoupled models. In high emission scenarios, warm water overcomes topographic barriers and dislodges Totten’s southern grounding zone around 2070, increasing the rate of grounded ice loss 3.5-fold (10 to 35 Gt/yr) and resulting in a total 4.20 mm SLRe loss by 2100. In this data publication, we present ... : Ice sheet model results: Direct results taken from the Ice-sheet and Sea-level System Model (Larour et al. 2012) with no processing applied, given bi-monthly. Ocean model results: Direct results taken from the MIT General Circulation Model (MITgcm, Marshall and Clarke, 1997) with no processing applied. Strength of the Antarctic Slope Current: The east-west component of the ocean velocity (direct output of the MITgcm) was averaged at 118oC along the continental slope at depths between 280-820 m from January 1, 2017 to December 15, 2099 (bi-weekly). Ice shelf draft: Direct output from BedMachine Antarctica (Morlighem et al., 2020) over ice covered regions of the ocean model domain, no processing has been applied. Ocean bathymetry: Bathymetry below floating ice is taken from BedMachine Antarctica (Morlighem et al., 2020) and from ETOPO1 over open ocean (National Geophysical Data Center), with recent updates of more accurate bathymetry for the region on the continental shelf off Totten ice shelf from Rintoul et ...