Climatology and surface impacts of atmospheric rivers on West Antarctica
Atmospheric rivers (ARs) transport large amounts of moisture from the mid- to high-latitudes and they are a primary driver of the most extreme snowfall events, along with surface melting, in Antarctica. In this study, we characterize the climatology and surface impacts of ARs on West Antarctica, foc...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-865-2023 |
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ftncar:oai:drupal-site.org:articles_26119 2023-10-01T03:50:10+02:00 Climatology and surface impacts of atmospheric rivers on West Antarctica Maclennan, Michelle L. (author) Lenaerts, Jan T. M. (author) Shields, Christine A. (author) Hoffman, Andrew O. (author) Wever, Nander (author) Thompson-Munson, Megan (author) Winters, Andrew C. (author) Pettit, Erin C. (author) Scambos, Theodore A. (author) Wille, Jonathan D. (author) 2023-02-21 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-865-2023 en eng The Cryosphere--The Cryosphere--1994-0424 AMIGOS-III Cavity and Channel Snow Height and Thermistor Snow Temperature Data--10.15784/601552 3-hourly MERRA2 IVT, uIVT, vIVT, IWV data computed for ARTMIP--10.5065/D62R3QFS MERRA-2 tavg1_2d_lfo_Nx: 2d,1-Hourly,Time-Averaged,Single-Level,Assimilation,Land Surface Forcings V5.12.4--10.5067/L0T5GEG1NYFA MERRA-2 const_2d_asm_Nx: 2d, constants--10.5067/ME5QX6Q5IGGU SNOWPACK simulations for Thwaites Cavity and Channel AMIGOS sites in West Antarctica--10.5281/zenodo.7320237 snowpack-model/snowpack: 149c586--10.5281/zenodo.7331794 snowpack-model/snowpack: 7afca63--10.5281/zenodo.7536784 Antarctica-POLENET GPS Network--10.7283/T50P0XBC Antarctica-POLENET GPS Network--10.7283/T5NK3C7D articles:26119 doi:10.5194/tc-17-865-2023 ark:/85065/d7736vtq Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. article Text 2023 ftncar https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-865-2023 2023-09-04T18:20:59Z Atmospheric rivers (ARs) transport large amounts of moisture from the mid- to high-latitudes and they are a primary driver of the most extreme snowfall events, along with surface melting, in Antarctica. In this study, we characterize the climatology and surface impacts of ARs on West Antarctica, focusing on the Amundsen Sea Embayment and Marie Byrd Land. First, we develop a climatology of ARs in this region, using an Antarctic-specific AR detection tool combined with the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Reanalysis v5 (ERA5) atmospheric reanalyses. We find that while ARs are infrequent (occurring 3 % of the time), they cause intense precipitation in short periods of time and account for 11 % of the annual surface accumulation. They are driven by the coupling of a blocking high over the Antarctic Peninsula with a low-pressure system known as the Amundsen Sea Low. Next, we use observations from automatic weather stations on Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf with the firn model SNOWPACK and interferometric reflectometry (IR) to examine a case study of three ARs that made landfall in rapid succession from 2 to 8 February 2020, known as an AR family event. While accumulation dominates the surface impacts of the event on Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf (> 100 kgm(-2) or millimeters water equivalent), we find small amounts of surface melt as well (< 5 kgm(-2)). The results presented here enable us to quantify the past impacts of ARs on West Antarctica's surface mass balance (SMB) and characterize their interannual variability and trends, enabling a better assessment of future AR-driven changes in the SMB. 1947282 DE-SC0022070 Article in Journal/Newspaper Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Ice Shelf Marie Byrd Land The Cryosphere West Antarctica OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) Amundsen Sea Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Byrd Marie Byrd Land ENVELOPE(-130.000,-130.000,-78.000,-78.000) Merra ENVELOPE(12.615,12.615,65.816,65.816) The Antarctic West Antarctica The Cryosphere 17 2 865 881 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) |
op_collection_id |
ftncar |
language |
English |
description |
Atmospheric rivers (ARs) transport large amounts of moisture from the mid- to high-latitudes and they are a primary driver of the most extreme snowfall events, along with surface melting, in Antarctica. In this study, we characterize the climatology and surface impacts of ARs on West Antarctica, focusing on the Amundsen Sea Embayment and Marie Byrd Land. First, we develop a climatology of ARs in this region, using an Antarctic-specific AR detection tool combined with the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Reanalysis v5 (ERA5) atmospheric reanalyses. We find that while ARs are infrequent (occurring 3 % of the time), they cause intense precipitation in short periods of time and account for 11 % of the annual surface accumulation. They are driven by the coupling of a blocking high over the Antarctic Peninsula with a low-pressure system known as the Amundsen Sea Low. Next, we use observations from automatic weather stations on Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf with the firn model SNOWPACK and interferometric reflectometry (IR) to examine a case study of three ARs that made landfall in rapid succession from 2 to 8 February 2020, known as an AR family event. While accumulation dominates the surface impacts of the event on Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf (> 100 kgm(-2) or millimeters water equivalent), we find small amounts of surface melt as well (< 5 kgm(-2)). The results presented here enable us to quantify the past impacts of ARs on West Antarctica's surface mass balance (SMB) and characterize their interannual variability and trends, enabling a better assessment of future AR-driven changes in the SMB. 1947282 DE-SC0022070 |
author2 |
Maclennan, Michelle L. (author) Lenaerts, Jan T. M. (author) Shields, Christine A. (author) Hoffman, Andrew O. (author) Wever, Nander (author) Thompson-Munson, Megan (author) Winters, Andrew C. (author) Pettit, Erin C. (author) Scambos, Theodore A. (author) Wille, Jonathan D. (author) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
title |
Climatology and surface impacts of atmospheric rivers on West Antarctica |
spellingShingle |
Climatology and surface impacts of atmospheric rivers on West Antarctica |
title_short |
Climatology and surface impacts of atmospheric rivers on West Antarctica |
title_full |
Climatology and surface impacts of atmospheric rivers on West Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Climatology and surface impacts of atmospheric rivers on West Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climatology and surface impacts of atmospheric rivers on West Antarctica |
title_sort |
climatology and surface impacts of atmospheric rivers on west antarctica |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-865-2023 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-130.000,-130.000,-78.000,-78.000) ENVELOPE(12.615,12.615,65.816,65.816) |
geographic |
Amundsen Sea Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Byrd Marie Byrd Land Merra The Antarctic West Antarctica |
geographic_facet |
Amundsen Sea Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Byrd Marie Byrd Land Merra The Antarctic West Antarctica |
genre |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Ice Shelf Marie Byrd Land The Cryosphere West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Ice Shelf Marie Byrd Land The Cryosphere West Antarctica |
op_relation |
The Cryosphere--The Cryosphere--1994-0424 AMIGOS-III Cavity and Channel Snow Height and Thermistor Snow Temperature Data--10.15784/601552 3-hourly MERRA2 IVT, uIVT, vIVT, IWV data computed for ARTMIP--10.5065/D62R3QFS MERRA-2 tavg1_2d_lfo_Nx: 2d,1-Hourly,Time-Averaged,Single-Level,Assimilation,Land Surface Forcings V5.12.4--10.5067/L0T5GEG1NYFA MERRA-2 const_2d_asm_Nx: 2d, constants--10.5067/ME5QX6Q5IGGU SNOWPACK simulations for Thwaites Cavity and Channel AMIGOS sites in West Antarctica--10.5281/zenodo.7320237 snowpack-model/snowpack: 149c586--10.5281/zenodo.7331794 snowpack-model/snowpack: 7afca63--10.5281/zenodo.7536784 Antarctica-POLENET GPS Network--10.7283/T50P0XBC Antarctica-POLENET GPS Network--10.7283/T5NK3C7D articles:26119 doi:10.5194/tc-17-865-2023 ark:/85065/d7736vtq |
op_rights |
Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-865-2023 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
865 |
op_container_end_page |
881 |
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1778519615473713152 |