Atmospheric River Contributions to Ice Sheet Hydroclimate at the Last Glacial Maximum

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Christopher B. Skinner, Juan M. Lora, Clay Tabor, Jiang Zhu
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2023
• Subjects: Geophysics. Cosmic physics; QC801-809; Antarc*; Antarctic; Fennoscandian; Greenland; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL101750; https://doaj.org/article/7f08e48f0417490dbb4dbcb3c8eac74e

Abstract Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are an important driver of surface mass balance over today's Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Using paleoclimate simulations with the Community Earth System Model, we find ARs also had a key influence on the extensive ice sheets of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). ARs provide up to 53% of total precipitation along the margins of the eastern Laurentide ice sheet and up to 22%–27% of precipitation along the margins of the Patagonian, western Cordilleran, and western Fennoscandian ice sheets. Despite overall cold conditions at the LGM, surface temperatures during AR events are often above freezing, resulting in more rain than snow along ice sheet margins and conditions that promote surface melt. The results suggest ARs may have had an important role in ice sheet growth and melt during previous glacial periods and may have accelerated ice sheet retreat following the LGM.