Atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica
Over recent decades outlet glaciers of the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE), West Antarctica, have accelerated, thinned and retreated, and are now contributing approximately 10% to global sea level rise. All the ASE glaciers flow into ice shelves, and it is the thinning of these since the 1970s, and the...
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:516501 2023-05-15T13:23:44+02:00 Atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica Turner, John Orr, Andrew Gudmundsson, G. Hilmar Jenkins, Adrian Bingham, Robert G. Hillenbrand, Claus-Dieter Bracegirdle, Thomas J. 2017-03 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516501/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516501/1/rog20124.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/2016RG000532 en eng Wiley https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516501/1/rog20124.pdf Turner, John orcid:0000-0002-6111-5122 Orr, Andrew orcid:0000-0001-5111-8402 Gudmundsson, G. Hilmar orcid:0000-0003-4236-5369 Jenkins, Adrian orcid:0000-0002-9117-0616 Bingham, Robert G.; Hillenbrand, Claus-Dieter orcid:0000-0003-0240-7317 Bracegirdle, Thomas J. orcid:0000-0002-8868-4739 . 2017 Atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica. Reviews of Geophysics, 55 (1). 235-276. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016RG000532 <https://doi.org/10.1002/2016RG000532> Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2017 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.1002/2016RG000532 2023-02-04T19:44:39Z Over recent decades outlet glaciers of the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE), West Antarctica, have accelerated, thinned and retreated, and are now contributing approximately 10% to global sea level rise. All the ASE glaciers flow into ice shelves, and it is the thinning of these since the 1970s, and their ungrounding from “pinning points” that is widely held to be responsible for triggering the glaciers’ decline. These changes have been linked to the inflow of warm Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) onto the ASE's continental shelf. CDW delivery is highly variable, and is closely related to the regional atmospheric circulation. The ASE is south of the Amundsen Sea Low (ASL), which has a large variability and which has deepened in recent decades. The ASL is influenced by the phase of the Southern Annular Mode, along with tropical climate variability. It is not currently possible to simulate such complex atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions in models, hampering prediction of future change. The current retreat could mark the beginning of an unstable phase of the ASE glaciers that, if continued, will result in collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, but numerical ice-sheet models currently lack the predictive power to answer this question. It is equally possible that the recent retreat will be short-lived and that the ASE will find a new stable state. Progress is hindered by incomplete knowledge of bed topography in the vicinity of the grounding line. Furthermore, a number of key processes are still missing or poorly represented in models of ice-flow. Article in Journal/Newspaper Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelves West Antarctica Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Antarctic West Antarctica Amundsen Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet Reviews of Geophysics 55 1 235 276 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftnerc |
language |
English |
description |
Over recent decades outlet glaciers of the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE), West Antarctica, have accelerated, thinned and retreated, and are now contributing approximately 10% to global sea level rise. All the ASE glaciers flow into ice shelves, and it is the thinning of these since the 1970s, and their ungrounding from “pinning points” that is widely held to be responsible for triggering the glaciers’ decline. These changes have been linked to the inflow of warm Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) onto the ASE's continental shelf. CDW delivery is highly variable, and is closely related to the regional atmospheric circulation. The ASE is south of the Amundsen Sea Low (ASL), which has a large variability and which has deepened in recent decades. The ASL is influenced by the phase of the Southern Annular Mode, along with tropical climate variability. It is not currently possible to simulate such complex atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions in models, hampering prediction of future change. The current retreat could mark the beginning of an unstable phase of the ASE glaciers that, if continued, will result in collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, but numerical ice-sheet models currently lack the predictive power to answer this question. It is equally possible that the recent retreat will be short-lived and that the ASE will find a new stable state. Progress is hindered by incomplete knowledge of bed topography in the vicinity of the grounding line. Furthermore, a number of key processes are still missing or poorly represented in models of ice-flow. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Turner, John Orr, Andrew Gudmundsson, G. Hilmar Jenkins, Adrian Bingham, Robert G. Hillenbrand, Claus-Dieter Bracegirdle, Thomas J. |
spellingShingle |
Turner, John Orr, Andrew Gudmundsson, G. Hilmar Jenkins, Adrian Bingham, Robert G. Hillenbrand, Claus-Dieter Bracegirdle, Thomas J. Atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica |
author_facet |
Turner, John Orr, Andrew Gudmundsson, G. Hilmar Jenkins, Adrian Bingham, Robert G. Hillenbrand, Claus-Dieter Bracegirdle, Thomas J. |
author_sort |
Turner, John |
title |
Atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica |
title_short |
Atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica |
title_full |
Atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica |
title_sort |
atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions in the amundsen sea embayment, west antarctica |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516501/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516501/1/rog20124.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/2016RG000532 |
geographic |
Antarctic West Antarctica Amundsen Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic West Antarctica Amundsen Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet |
genre |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelves West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelves West Antarctica |
op_relation |
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516501/1/rog20124.pdf Turner, John orcid:0000-0002-6111-5122 Orr, Andrew orcid:0000-0001-5111-8402 Gudmundsson, G. Hilmar orcid:0000-0003-4236-5369 Jenkins, Adrian orcid:0000-0002-9117-0616 Bingham, Robert G.; Hillenbrand, Claus-Dieter orcid:0000-0003-0240-7317 Bracegirdle, Thomas J. orcid:0000-0002-8868-4739 . 2017 Atmosphere-ocean-ice interactions in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica. Reviews of Geophysics, 55 (1). 235-276. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016RG000532 <https://doi.org/10.1002/2016RG000532> |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/2016RG000532 |
container_title |
Reviews of Geophysics |
container_volume |
55 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
235 |
op_container_end_page |
276 |
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1766374583125934080 |