Climate and surface mass balance of coastal West Antarctica resolved by regional climate modelling
West Antarctic climate and surface mass balance (SMB) records are sparse. To fill this gap, regional atmospheric climate modelling is useful, providing that such models are employed at sufficiently high horizontal resolution and coupled with a snow model. Here we present the results of a high-resolu...
Published in: | Annals of Glaciology |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:1170a321cb504e068377d99257e81bb6 2023-05-15T13:29:30+02:00 Climate and surface mass balance of coastal West Antarctica resolved by regional climate modelling Jan T. M. Lenaerts Stefan R. M. Ligtenberg Brooke Medley Willem Jan Van de Berg Hannes Konrad Julien P. Nicolas J. Melchior Van Wessem Luke D. Trusel Robert Mulvaney Rebecca J. Tuckwell Anna E. Hogg Elizabeth R. Thomas 2018-07-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2017.42 https://doaj.org/article/1170a321cb504e068377d99257e81bb6 EN eng Cambridge University Press https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0260305517000428/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0260-3055 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5644 doi:10.1017/aog.2017.42 0260-3055 1727-5644 https://doaj.org/article/1170a321cb504e068377d99257e81bb6 Annals of Glaciology, Vol 59, Pp 29-41 (2018) accumulation Antarctic glaciology ice/atmosphere interactions snow/ice surface processes surface mass budget Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2017.42 2023-03-12T01:31:57Z West Antarctic climate and surface mass balance (SMB) records are sparse. To fill this gap, regional atmospheric climate modelling is useful, providing that such models are employed at sufficiently high horizontal resolution and coupled with a snow model. Here we present the results of a high-resolution (5.5 km) regional atmospheric climate model (RACMO2) simulation of coastal West Antarctica for the period 1979–2015. We evaluate the results with available in situ weather observations, remote-sensing estimates of surface melt, and SMB estimates derived from radar and firn cores. Moreover, results are compared with those from a lower-resolution version, to assess the added value of the resolution. The high-resolution model resolves small-scale climate variability invoked by topography, such as the relatively warm conditions over ice-shelf grounding zones, and local wind speed accelerations. Surface melt and SMB are well reproduced by RACMO2. This dataset will prove useful for picking ice core locations, converting elevation changes to mass changes, for driving ocean, ice-sheet and coupled models, and for attributing changes in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and shelves to changes in atmospheric forcing. Article in Journal/Newspaper Annals of Glaciology Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica ice core Ice Sheet Ice Shelf West Antarctica Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Antarctic West Antarctic Ice Sheet West Antarctica Annals of Glaciology 59 76pt1 29 41 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
accumulation Antarctic glaciology ice/atmosphere interactions snow/ice surface processes surface mass budget Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
spellingShingle |
accumulation Antarctic glaciology ice/atmosphere interactions snow/ice surface processes surface mass budget Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 Jan T. M. Lenaerts Stefan R. M. Ligtenberg Brooke Medley Willem Jan Van de Berg Hannes Konrad Julien P. Nicolas J. Melchior Van Wessem Luke D. Trusel Robert Mulvaney Rebecca J. Tuckwell Anna E. Hogg Elizabeth R. Thomas Climate and surface mass balance of coastal West Antarctica resolved by regional climate modelling |
topic_facet |
accumulation Antarctic glaciology ice/atmosphere interactions snow/ice surface processes surface mass budget Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
description |
West Antarctic climate and surface mass balance (SMB) records are sparse. To fill this gap, regional atmospheric climate modelling is useful, providing that such models are employed at sufficiently high horizontal resolution and coupled with a snow model. Here we present the results of a high-resolution (5.5 km) regional atmospheric climate model (RACMO2) simulation of coastal West Antarctica for the period 1979–2015. We evaluate the results with available in situ weather observations, remote-sensing estimates of surface melt, and SMB estimates derived from radar and firn cores. Moreover, results are compared with those from a lower-resolution version, to assess the added value of the resolution. The high-resolution model resolves small-scale climate variability invoked by topography, such as the relatively warm conditions over ice-shelf grounding zones, and local wind speed accelerations. Surface melt and SMB are well reproduced by RACMO2. This dataset will prove useful for picking ice core locations, converting elevation changes to mass changes, for driving ocean, ice-sheet and coupled models, and for attributing changes in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and shelves to changes in atmospheric forcing. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jan T. M. Lenaerts Stefan R. M. Ligtenberg Brooke Medley Willem Jan Van de Berg Hannes Konrad Julien P. Nicolas J. Melchior Van Wessem Luke D. Trusel Robert Mulvaney Rebecca J. Tuckwell Anna E. Hogg Elizabeth R. Thomas |
author_facet |
Jan T. M. Lenaerts Stefan R. M. Ligtenberg Brooke Medley Willem Jan Van de Berg Hannes Konrad Julien P. Nicolas J. Melchior Van Wessem Luke D. Trusel Robert Mulvaney Rebecca J. Tuckwell Anna E. Hogg Elizabeth R. Thomas |
author_sort |
Jan T. M. Lenaerts |
title |
Climate and surface mass balance of coastal West Antarctica resolved by regional climate modelling |
title_short |
Climate and surface mass balance of coastal West Antarctica resolved by regional climate modelling |
title_full |
Climate and surface mass balance of coastal West Antarctica resolved by regional climate modelling |
title_fullStr |
Climate and surface mass balance of coastal West Antarctica resolved by regional climate modelling |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climate and surface mass balance of coastal West Antarctica resolved by regional climate modelling |
title_sort |
climate and surface mass balance of coastal west antarctica resolved by regional climate modelling |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2017.42 https://doaj.org/article/1170a321cb504e068377d99257e81bb6 |
geographic |
Antarctic West Antarctic Ice Sheet West Antarctica |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic West Antarctic Ice Sheet West Antarctica |
genre |
Annals of Glaciology Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica ice core Ice Sheet Ice Shelf West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Annals of Glaciology Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica ice core Ice Sheet Ice Shelf West Antarctica |
op_source |
Annals of Glaciology, Vol 59, Pp 29-41 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0260305517000428/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0260-3055 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5644 doi:10.1017/aog.2017.42 0260-3055 1727-5644 https://doaj.org/article/1170a321cb504e068377d99257e81bb6 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2017.42 |
container_title |
Annals of Glaciology |
container_volume |
59 |
container_issue |
76pt1 |
container_start_page |
29 |
op_container_end_page |
41 |
_version_ |
1766001002614358016 |