The extraordinary March 2022 East Antarctica “heat” wave. Part I: observations and meteorological drivers

• Published in: Journal of Climate
• Main Authors: Wille, Jonathan, D, Alexander, Simon, P, Amory, Charles, Baiman, Rebecca, Barthélemy, Léonard, Bergstrom, Dana, M, Berne, Alexis, Binder, Hanin, Blanchet, J, Bozkurt, Deniz, Bracegirdle, Thomas, J, Casado, Mathieu, Choi, Taejin, Clem, Kyle, R, Codron, Francis, Datta, Rajashree, Di Battista, Stefano, Favier, Vincent, Francis, Diana, Fraser, Alexander, D, Fourré, Elise, Garreaud, René, D, Genthon, Christophe, Gorodetskaya, Irina, V, González-Herrero, Sergi, Heinrich, Victoria, J, Hubert, Guillaume, Joos, Hanna, Kim, Seong-Joong, King, John, C, Kittel, Christoph, Landais, Amaelle, Lazzara, Matthew, Leonard, Gregory, H, Lieser, Jan, L, Maclennan, Michelle, Mikolajczyk, David, Neff, Peter, Ollivier, Inès, Picard, Ghislain, Pohl, Benjamin, Ralph, F. Martin, Rowe, Penny, Schlosser, Elisabeth, Shields, Christine, A, Smith, Inga, J, Sprenger, Michael, Trusel, Luke, Udy, Danielle, Vance, Tessa, Vignon, Étienne, Walker, Catherine, Wever, Nander, Zou, Xun
• Other Authors: Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP ), Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), Loyola University Chicago, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Boulder (ATOC), University of Colorado Boulder, Océan et variabilité du climat (VARCLIM), Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X), Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-École polytechnique (X), Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)), Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science Zürich (IAC), Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH Zürich), Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539) (LMD), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X), Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Département des Géosciences - ENS Paris, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL), Universidad de Valparaiso Chile, British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), Glaces et Continents, Climats et Isotopes Stables (GLACCIOS), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI), School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences Wellington, Victoria University of Wellington, Sorbonne Université (SU), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC), Meteogiornale, Environmental and Geophysical Sciences Lab (ENGEOS Lab), Khalifa University, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies Hobart (IMAS), University of Tasmania Hobart, Australia (UTAS), Departamento de Geofísica Santiago, Universidad de Chile = University of Chile Santiago (UCHILE), Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies Aveiro (CESAM), Universidade de Aveiro, SLF Institut pour l'étude de la neige et des avalanches (SLF), SLF, University of Tasmania Launceston (UTAS), DPHY, ONERA, Université de Toulouse Toulouse, ONERA-PRES Université de Toulouse
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2024
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctica; East Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04289357; https://hal.science/hal-04289357/document; https://hal.science/hal-04289357/file/clim-JCLI-D-23-0175.1.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-23-0175.1

International audience Between March 15-19, 2022, East Antarctica experienced an exceptional heatwave with widespread 30-40° C temperature anomalies across the ice sheet. This record-shattering event saw numerous monthly temperature records being broken including a new all-time temperature record of -9.4° C on March 18 at Concordia Station despite March typically being a transition month to the Antarctic coreless winter. The driver for these temperature extremes was an intense atmospheric river advecting subtropical/mid-latitude heat and moisture deep into the Antarctic interior. The scope of the temperature records spurred a large, diverse collaborative effort to study the heatwaves meteorological drivers, impacts, and historical climate context. Here we focus on describing those temperature records along with the intricate meteorological drivers that led to the most intense atmospheric river observed over East Antarctica. These efforts describe the Rossby wave activity forced from intense tropical convection over the Indian Ocean. This led to an atmospheric river and warm conveyor belt intensification near the coastline which reinforced atmospheric blocking deep into East Antarctica. The resulting moisture flux and upper-level warm air advection eroded the typical surface temperature inversions over the ice sheet. At the peak of the heatwave, an area of 3.3 million km2 in East Antarctica exceeded previous March monthly temperature records. Despite a temperature anomaly return time of about one hundred years, a closer recurrence of such an event is possible under future climate projections. In a subsequent manuscript, we describe the various impacts this extreme event had on the East Antarctic cryosphere.