Regional climate of the Larsen B embayment 1980-2014
Understanding the climate response of the Antarctic Peninsula ice sheet is vital for accurate predictions of sea level rise. However, since climate models are typically too coarse to capture spatial variability in local scale meteorological processes, our ability to study specific sectors has been l...
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Online Access: | https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/86796/ https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2017.39 |
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ftulancaster:oai:eprints.lancs.ac.uk:86796 2023-08-27T04:04:55+02:00 Regional climate of the Larsen B embayment 1980-2014 Leeson, Amber Alexandra van Wessem, Melchior Ligtenberg, Stefan Shepherd, A. van den broeke, Michiel Killick, Rebecca Claire Skvarca, Pedro Marinsek, Sebastien Colwell, Steve 2017-08 https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/86796/ https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2017.39 unknown Leeson, Amber Alexandra and van Wessem, Melchior and Ligtenberg, Stefan and Shepherd, A. and van den broeke, Michiel and Killick, Rebecca Claire and Skvarca, Pedro and Marinsek, Sebastien and Colwell, Steve (2017) Regional climate of the Larsen B embayment 1980-2014. Journal of Glaciology, 63 (240). pp. 683-690. ISSN 0022-1430 Journal Article PeerReviewed 2017 ftulancaster https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2017.39 2023-08-03T22:31:35Z Understanding the climate response of the Antarctic Peninsula ice sheet is vital for accurate predictions of sea level rise. However, since climate models are typically too coarse to capture spatial variability in local scale meteorological processes, our ability to study specific sectors has been limited by the local fidelity of such models and the (often sparse) availability of observations. We show that a high-resolution (5.5 km x 5.5 km) version of a regional climate model (RACMO2.3) can reproduce observed inter-annual variability in the Larsen B embayment sufficiently to enable its use in investigating long-term changes in this sector. Using the model, together with AWS data, we confirm previous findings that the year of the Larsen B ice shelf collapse (2001/2002) was a strong melt year, but discover that total annual melt production was in fact ~30% lower than two years prior. While the year before collapse exhibited the lowest melting and highest snowfall during 1980-2014, the ice shelf was likely pre-conditioned for collapse by a series of strong melt years in the 1990s. Melt energy has since returned to pre-1990s levels, which likely explains the lack of further significant collapse in the region (e.g. of SCAR Inlet). Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Journal of Glaciology Lancaster University: Lancaster Eprints Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Scar Inlet ENVELOPE(-61.867,-61.867,-65.933,-65.933) The Antarctic Journal of Glaciology 63 240 683 690 |
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Lancaster University: Lancaster Eprints |
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ftulancaster |
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description |
Understanding the climate response of the Antarctic Peninsula ice sheet is vital for accurate predictions of sea level rise. However, since climate models are typically too coarse to capture spatial variability in local scale meteorological processes, our ability to study specific sectors has been limited by the local fidelity of such models and the (often sparse) availability of observations. We show that a high-resolution (5.5 km x 5.5 km) version of a regional climate model (RACMO2.3) can reproduce observed inter-annual variability in the Larsen B embayment sufficiently to enable its use in investigating long-term changes in this sector. Using the model, together with AWS data, we confirm previous findings that the year of the Larsen B ice shelf collapse (2001/2002) was a strong melt year, but discover that total annual melt production was in fact ~30% lower than two years prior. While the year before collapse exhibited the lowest melting and highest snowfall during 1980-2014, the ice shelf was likely pre-conditioned for collapse by a series of strong melt years in the 1990s. Melt energy has since returned to pre-1990s levels, which likely explains the lack of further significant collapse in the region (e.g. of SCAR Inlet). |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Leeson, Amber Alexandra van Wessem, Melchior Ligtenberg, Stefan Shepherd, A. van den broeke, Michiel Killick, Rebecca Claire Skvarca, Pedro Marinsek, Sebastien Colwell, Steve |
spellingShingle |
Leeson, Amber Alexandra van Wessem, Melchior Ligtenberg, Stefan Shepherd, A. van den broeke, Michiel Killick, Rebecca Claire Skvarca, Pedro Marinsek, Sebastien Colwell, Steve Regional climate of the Larsen B embayment 1980-2014 |
author_facet |
Leeson, Amber Alexandra van Wessem, Melchior Ligtenberg, Stefan Shepherd, A. van den broeke, Michiel Killick, Rebecca Claire Skvarca, Pedro Marinsek, Sebastien Colwell, Steve |
author_sort |
Leeson, Amber Alexandra |
title |
Regional climate of the Larsen B embayment 1980-2014 |
title_short |
Regional climate of the Larsen B embayment 1980-2014 |
title_full |
Regional climate of the Larsen B embayment 1980-2014 |
title_fullStr |
Regional climate of the Larsen B embayment 1980-2014 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Regional climate of the Larsen B embayment 1980-2014 |
title_sort |
regional climate of the larsen b embayment 1980-2014 |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/86796/ https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2017.39 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-61.867,-61.867,-65.933,-65.933) |
geographic |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Scar Inlet The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Scar Inlet The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Journal of Glaciology |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Journal of Glaciology |
op_relation |
Leeson, Amber Alexandra and van Wessem, Melchior and Ligtenberg, Stefan and Shepherd, A. and van den broeke, Michiel and Killick, Rebecca Claire and Skvarca, Pedro and Marinsek, Sebastien and Colwell, Steve (2017) Regional climate of the Larsen B embayment 1980-2014. Journal of Glaciology, 63 (240). pp. 683-690. ISSN 0022-1430 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2017.39 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
container_volume |
63 |
container_issue |
240 |
container_start_page |
683 |
op_container_end_page |
690 |
_version_ |
1775354475655987200 |