January 2016 extensive summer melt in West Antarctica favoured by strong El Niño
Over the past two decades the primary driver of mass loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) has been warm ocean water underneath coastal ice shelves, not a warmer atmosphere. Yet, surface melt occurs sporadically over low-lying areas of the WAIS and is not fully understood. Here we report on...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:5481731 2023-05-15T13:53:10+02:00 January 2016 extensive summer melt in West Antarctica favoured by strong El Niño Nicolas, Julien P. Vogelmann, Andrew M. Scott, Ryan C. Wilson, Aaron B. Cadeddu, Maria P. Bromwich, David H. Verlinde, Johannes Lubin, Dan Russell, Lynn M. Jenkinson, Colin Powers, Heath H. Ryczek, Maciej Stone, Gregory Wille, Jonathan D. 2017-06-15 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5481731/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28643801 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15799 en eng Nature Publishing Group http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5481731/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28643801 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15799 Copyright © 2017, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Article Text 2017 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15799 2017-07-09T00:05:43Z Over the past two decades the primary driver of mass loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) has been warm ocean water underneath coastal ice shelves, not a warmer atmosphere. Yet, surface melt occurs sporadically over low-lying areas of the WAIS and is not fully understood. Here we report on an episode of extensive and prolonged surface melting observed in the Ross Sea sector of the WAIS in January 2016. A comprehensive cloud and radiation experiment at the WAIS ice divide, downwind of the melt region, provided detailed insight into the physical processes at play during the event. The unusual extent and duration of the melting are linked to strong and sustained advection of warm marine air toward the area, likely favoured by the concurrent strong El Niño event. The increase in the number of extreme El Niño events projected for the twenty-first century could expose the WAIS to more frequent major melt events. Text Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelves Ross Sea West Antarctica PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic Ross Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet West Antarctica Nature Communications 8 1 |
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Article Nicolas, Julien P. Vogelmann, Andrew M. Scott, Ryan C. Wilson, Aaron B. Cadeddu, Maria P. Bromwich, David H. Verlinde, Johannes Lubin, Dan Russell, Lynn M. Jenkinson, Colin Powers, Heath H. Ryczek, Maciej Stone, Gregory Wille, Jonathan D. January 2016 extensive summer melt in West Antarctica favoured by strong El Niño |
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Article |
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Over the past two decades the primary driver of mass loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) has been warm ocean water underneath coastal ice shelves, not a warmer atmosphere. Yet, surface melt occurs sporadically over low-lying areas of the WAIS and is not fully understood. Here we report on an episode of extensive and prolonged surface melting observed in the Ross Sea sector of the WAIS in January 2016. A comprehensive cloud and radiation experiment at the WAIS ice divide, downwind of the melt region, provided detailed insight into the physical processes at play during the event. The unusual extent and duration of the melting are linked to strong and sustained advection of warm marine air toward the area, likely favoured by the concurrent strong El Niño event. The increase in the number of extreme El Niño events projected for the twenty-first century could expose the WAIS to more frequent major melt events. |
format |
Text |
author |
Nicolas, Julien P. Vogelmann, Andrew M. Scott, Ryan C. Wilson, Aaron B. Cadeddu, Maria P. Bromwich, David H. Verlinde, Johannes Lubin, Dan Russell, Lynn M. Jenkinson, Colin Powers, Heath H. Ryczek, Maciej Stone, Gregory Wille, Jonathan D. |
author_facet |
Nicolas, Julien P. Vogelmann, Andrew M. Scott, Ryan C. Wilson, Aaron B. Cadeddu, Maria P. Bromwich, David H. Verlinde, Johannes Lubin, Dan Russell, Lynn M. Jenkinson, Colin Powers, Heath H. Ryczek, Maciej Stone, Gregory Wille, Jonathan D. |
author_sort |
Nicolas, Julien P. |
title |
January 2016 extensive summer melt in West Antarctica favoured by strong El Niño |
title_short |
January 2016 extensive summer melt in West Antarctica favoured by strong El Niño |
title_full |
January 2016 extensive summer melt in West Antarctica favoured by strong El Niño |
title_fullStr |
January 2016 extensive summer melt in West Antarctica favoured by strong El Niño |
title_full_unstemmed |
January 2016 extensive summer melt in West Antarctica favoured by strong El Niño |
title_sort |
january 2016 extensive summer melt in west antarctica favoured by strong el niño |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5481731/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28643801 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15799 |
geographic |
Antarctic Ross Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet West Antarctica |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Ross Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet West Antarctica |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelves Ross Sea West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelves Ross Sea West Antarctica |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5481731/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28643801 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15799 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2017, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15799 |
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Nature Communications |
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8 |
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1 |
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1766258144086851584 |