Characteristics and rarity of the strong 1940s westerly wind event over the Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica
Glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment of West Antarctica are rapidly retreating and contributing to sea level rise. Ice loss is occurring primarily via exposure to warm ocean water, which varies in response to local wind variability. There is evidence that retreat was initiated in the mid-20th cent...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
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Copernicus Publications
2023
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ftnonlinearchiv:oai:noa.gwlb.de:cop_mods_00069397 2023-11-12T04:00:47+01:00 Characteristics and rarity of the strong 1940s westerly wind event over the Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica O'Connor, Gemma K. Holland, Paul R. Steig, Eric J. Dutrieux, Pierre Hakim, Gregory J. 2023-10 electronic https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4399-2023 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00069397 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00067783/tc-17-4399-2023.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/4399/2023/tc-17-4399-2023.pdf eng eng Copernicus Publications The Cryosphere -- ˜Theœ Cryosphere -- http://www.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/ezeit/?2393169 -- http://www.the-cryosphere.net/ -- 1994-0424 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4399-2023 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00069397 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00067783/tc-17-4399-2023.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/4399/2023/tc-17-4399-2023.pdf https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article Verlagsveröffentlichung article Text doc-type:article 2023 ftnonlinearchiv https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4399-2023 2023-10-22T23:22:30Z Glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment of West Antarctica are rapidly retreating and contributing to sea level rise. Ice loss is occurring primarily via exposure to warm ocean water, which varies in response to local wind variability. There is evidence that retreat was initiated in the mid-20th century, but the perturbation that may have triggered retreat remains unknown. A leading hypothesis is that large pressure and wind anomalies in the 1940s drove exceptionally strong oceanic ice-shelf melting. However, the characteristics, drivers, and rarity of the atmospheric event remain poorly constrained. We investigate the 1940s atmospheric event using paleoclimate reconstructions and climate model simulations. The reconstructions show that large westerly wind anomalies occurred from ∼1938–1942, a combined response to the very large El Niño event from 1940–1942 and other variability beginning years earlier. Climate model simulations provide evidence that events of similar magnitude and duration may occur tens to hundreds of times per 10 kyr of internal climate variability (∼0.2 to 2.5 occurrences per century). Our results suggest that the 1940s westerly event is unlikely to have been exceptional enough to be the sole explanation for the initiation of Amundsen Sea glacier retreat. Additional factors are likely needed to explain the onset of retreat in West Antarctica, such as naturally arising variability in ocean conditions prior to the 1940s or anthropogenically driven trends since the 1940s. Article in Journal/Newspaper Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctica Ice Shelf The Cryosphere West Antarctica Niedersächsisches Online-Archiv NOA Amundsen Sea West Antarctica The Cryosphere 17 10 4399 4420 |
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Niedersächsisches Online-Archiv NOA |
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English |
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article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
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article Verlagsveröffentlichung O'Connor, Gemma K. Holland, Paul R. Steig, Eric J. Dutrieux, Pierre Hakim, Gregory J. Characteristics and rarity of the strong 1940s westerly wind event over the Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica |
topic_facet |
article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
description |
Glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment of West Antarctica are rapidly retreating and contributing to sea level rise. Ice loss is occurring primarily via exposure to warm ocean water, which varies in response to local wind variability. There is evidence that retreat was initiated in the mid-20th century, but the perturbation that may have triggered retreat remains unknown. A leading hypothesis is that large pressure and wind anomalies in the 1940s drove exceptionally strong oceanic ice-shelf melting. However, the characteristics, drivers, and rarity of the atmospheric event remain poorly constrained. We investigate the 1940s atmospheric event using paleoclimate reconstructions and climate model simulations. The reconstructions show that large westerly wind anomalies occurred from ∼1938–1942, a combined response to the very large El Niño event from 1940–1942 and other variability beginning years earlier. Climate model simulations provide evidence that events of similar magnitude and duration may occur tens to hundreds of times per 10 kyr of internal climate variability (∼0.2 to 2.5 occurrences per century). Our results suggest that the 1940s westerly event is unlikely to have been exceptional enough to be the sole explanation for the initiation of Amundsen Sea glacier retreat. Additional factors are likely needed to explain the onset of retreat in West Antarctica, such as naturally arising variability in ocean conditions prior to the 1940s or anthropogenically driven trends since the 1940s. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
O'Connor, Gemma K. Holland, Paul R. Steig, Eric J. Dutrieux, Pierre Hakim, Gregory J. |
author_facet |
O'Connor, Gemma K. Holland, Paul R. Steig, Eric J. Dutrieux, Pierre Hakim, Gregory J. |
author_sort |
O'Connor, Gemma K. |
title |
Characteristics and rarity of the strong 1940s westerly wind event over the Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica |
title_short |
Characteristics and rarity of the strong 1940s westerly wind event over the Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica |
title_full |
Characteristics and rarity of the strong 1940s westerly wind event over the Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Characteristics and rarity of the strong 1940s westerly wind event over the Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Characteristics and rarity of the strong 1940s westerly wind event over the Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica |
title_sort |
characteristics and rarity of the strong 1940s westerly wind event over the amundsen sea, west antarctica |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4399-2023 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00069397 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00067783/tc-17-4399-2023.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/4399/2023/tc-17-4399-2023.pdf |
geographic |
Amundsen Sea West Antarctica |
geographic_facet |
Amundsen Sea West Antarctica |
genre |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctica Ice Shelf The Cryosphere West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctica Ice Shelf The Cryosphere West Antarctica |
op_relation |
The Cryosphere -- ˜Theœ Cryosphere -- http://www.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/ezeit/?2393169 -- http://www.the-cryosphere.net/ -- 1994-0424 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4399-2023 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00069397 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00067783/tc-17-4399-2023.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/4399/2023/tc-17-4399-2023.pdf |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4399-2023 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
4399 |
op_container_end_page |
4420 |
_version_ |
1782328780253036544 |