Atmospheric drying as the main driver of dramatic glacier wastage in the southern Indian Ocean

This study was funded by IPEV-1048 GLACIOCLIM-KESAACO and LEFE-INSU KCRuMBLE programs, and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche through contract ANR-14-CE01-0001-01 (ASUMA). The ongoing retreat of glaciers at southern sub-polar latitudes is particularly rapid and widespread. Akin to northern sub-pol...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific Reports
Main Authors: Favier, V., Verfaillie, D., Berthier, E., Menegoz, M., Jomelli, V., Kay, J. E., Ducret, L., Malbéteau, Y., Brunstein, D., Gallée, H., Park, Y. -H., Rinterknecht, V.
Other Authors: University of St Andrews. Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews. Marine Alliance for Science & Technology Scotland, University of St Andrews. Scottish Oceans Institute
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2016
Subjects:
GE Environmental Sciences
GB Physical geography
General
3rd-DAS
SDG 13 - Climate Action
GE
GB
Indian
Kerguelen
Kerguelen Islands
Ice cap
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10023/9510
https://doi.org/10.1038/srep32396
Description
Summary:This study was funded by IPEV-1048 GLACIOCLIM-KESAACO and LEFE-INSU KCRuMBLE programs, and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche through contract ANR-14-CE01-0001-01 (ASUMA). The ongoing retreat of glaciers at southern sub-polar latitudes is particularly rapid and widespread. Akin to northern sub-polar latitudes, this retreat is generally assumed to be linked to warming. However, no long-term and well-constrained glacier modeling has ever been performed to confirm this hypothesis. Here, we model the Cook Ice Cap mass balance on the Kerguelen Islands (Southern Indian Ocean, 49°S) since the 1850s. We show that glacier wastage during the 2000s in the Kerguelen was among the most dramatic on Earth. We attribute 77% of the increasingly negative mass balance since the 1960s to atmospheric drying associated with a poleward shift of the mid-latitude storm track. Because precipitation modeling is very challenging for the current generation of climate models over the study area, models incorrectly simulate the climate drivers behind the recent glacier wastage in the Kerguelen. This suggests that future glacier wastage projections should be considered cautiously where changes in atmospheric circulation are expected. Publisher PDF Peer reviewed

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