The Springtime Influence of Natural Tropical Pacific Variability on the Surface Climate of the Ross Ice Shelf, West Antarctica: Implications for Ice Shelf Thinning
Observational records starting in the 1950s show West Antarctica is amongst the most rapidly warming regions on the planet. Together with increased intrusions of warm circumpolar deep water (CDW) onto the continental shelf due to local wind forcing (the primary mechanism in recent decades), this has...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:6086883 2023-05-15T13:55:22+02:00 The Springtime Influence of Natural Tropical Pacific Variability on the Surface Climate of the Ross Ice Shelf, West Antarctica: Implications for Ice Shelf Thinning Clem, Kyle R. Orr, Andrew Pope, James O. 2018-08-10 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6086883/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30097646 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-30496-5 en eng Nature Publishing Group UK http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6086883/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30097646 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-30496-5 © The Author(s) 2018 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 2018 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-30496-5 2018-08-19T00:21:19Z Observational records starting in the 1950s show West Antarctica is amongst the most rapidly warming regions on the planet. Together with increased intrusions of warm circumpolar deep water (CDW) onto the continental shelf due to local wind forcing (the primary mechanism in recent decades), this has resulted in enhanced surface and basal melting of floating ice shelves and an associated acceleration and thinning of West Antarctic outlet glaciers, increasing the rate of global sea level rise. In this study, it is shown that during the austral spring season, significant surface warming across West Antarctica has shifted westward to the Ross Ice Shelf in recent decades in response to enhanced cyclonic circulation over the Ross Sea. These circulation changes are caused by a Rossby wave train forced by increasing sea surface temperatures in the western tropical Pacific, which is tied to the springtime shift of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) to its negative phase after 1992. While the local wind trends enhance warm air advection and surface warming across the Ross Ice Shelf, the strong easterly component of the wind trends reduces the likelihood for intrusions of CDW onto the continental shelf in this region. This suggests that during spring there are competing mechanisms of surface and basal melting of the Ross Ice Shelf, both of which are closely tied to natural tropical Pacific decadal variability. Moreover, that the projected transition of the IPO back to its positive phase in the coming decade, though likely to reduce surface warming on the Ross Ice Shelf, could increase the risk of disintegration of Ross Sea ice shelves due to increased intrusions of CDW and enhanced basal melting. Text Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Ross Ice Shelf Ross Sea Sea ice West Antarctica PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic Austral Pacific Ross Ice Shelf Ross Sea West Antarctica Scientific Reports 8 1 |
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Article Clem, Kyle R. Orr, Andrew Pope, James O. The Springtime Influence of Natural Tropical Pacific Variability on the Surface Climate of the Ross Ice Shelf, West Antarctica: Implications for Ice Shelf Thinning |
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Article |
description |
Observational records starting in the 1950s show West Antarctica is amongst the most rapidly warming regions on the planet. Together with increased intrusions of warm circumpolar deep water (CDW) onto the continental shelf due to local wind forcing (the primary mechanism in recent decades), this has resulted in enhanced surface and basal melting of floating ice shelves and an associated acceleration and thinning of West Antarctic outlet glaciers, increasing the rate of global sea level rise. In this study, it is shown that during the austral spring season, significant surface warming across West Antarctica has shifted westward to the Ross Ice Shelf in recent decades in response to enhanced cyclonic circulation over the Ross Sea. These circulation changes are caused by a Rossby wave train forced by increasing sea surface temperatures in the western tropical Pacific, which is tied to the springtime shift of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) to its negative phase after 1992. While the local wind trends enhance warm air advection and surface warming across the Ross Ice Shelf, the strong easterly component of the wind trends reduces the likelihood for intrusions of CDW onto the continental shelf in this region. This suggests that during spring there are competing mechanisms of surface and basal melting of the Ross Ice Shelf, both of which are closely tied to natural tropical Pacific decadal variability. Moreover, that the projected transition of the IPO back to its positive phase in the coming decade, though likely to reduce surface warming on the Ross Ice Shelf, could increase the risk of disintegration of Ross Sea ice shelves due to increased intrusions of CDW and enhanced basal melting. |
format |
Text |
author |
Clem, Kyle R. Orr, Andrew Pope, James O. |
author_facet |
Clem, Kyle R. Orr, Andrew Pope, James O. |
author_sort |
Clem, Kyle R. |
title |
The Springtime Influence of Natural Tropical Pacific Variability on the Surface Climate of the Ross Ice Shelf, West Antarctica: Implications for Ice Shelf Thinning |
title_short |
The Springtime Influence of Natural Tropical Pacific Variability on the Surface Climate of the Ross Ice Shelf, West Antarctica: Implications for Ice Shelf Thinning |
title_full |
The Springtime Influence of Natural Tropical Pacific Variability on the Surface Climate of the Ross Ice Shelf, West Antarctica: Implications for Ice Shelf Thinning |
title_fullStr |
The Springtime Influence of Natural Tropical Pacific Variability on the Surface Climate of the Ross Ice Shelf, West Antarctica: Implications for Ice Shelf Thinning |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Springtime Influence of Natural Tropical Pacific Variability on the Surface Climate of the Ross Ice Shelf, West Antarctica: Implications for Ice Shelf Thinning |
title_sort |
springtime influence of natural tropical pacific variability on the surface climate of the ross ice shelf, west antarctica: implications for ice shelf thinning |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group UK |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6086883/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30097646 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-30496-5 |
geographic |
Antarctic Austral Pacific Ross Ice Shelf Ross Sea West Antarctica |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Austral Pacific Ross Ice Shelf Ross Sea West Antarctica |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Ross Ice Shelf Ross Sea Sea ice West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Ross Ice Shelf Ross Sea Sea ice West Antarctica |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6086883/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30097646 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-30496-5 |
op_rights |
© The Author(s) 2018 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/s41598-018-30496-5 |
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Scientific Reports |
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