Record-high Antarctic Peninsula temperatures and surface melt in February 2022: a compound event with an intense atmospheric river

• Published in: npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
• Main Authors: Gorodetskaya, Irina, V, Durán-Alarcón, Claudio, González-Herrero, Sergi, Clem, Kyle, R., Zou, Xun, Rowe, Penny, Rodriguez Imazio, Paola, Campos, Diego, Leroy-dos Santos, Christophe, Dutrievoz, Niels, Wille, Jonathan, D., Chyhareva, Anastasiia, Favier, Vincent, Blanchet, Juliette, Pohl, Benjamin, Cordero, Raul, R., Park, Sang-Jong, Colwell, Steve, Lazzara, Matthew, A, Carrasco, Jorge, Gulisano, Adriana Maria, Krakovska, Svitlana, Ralph, F. Martin, Dethinne, Thomas, Picard, Ghislain
• Other Authors: Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research Matosinhos, Portugal (CIIMAR), Universidade do Porto = University of Porto, Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies Aveiro (CESAM), Universidade de Aveiro, SLF Institut pour l'étude de la neige et des avalanches (SLF), SLF, Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (AEMet), Victoria University of Wellington, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO - UC San Diego), University of California San Diego (UC San Diego), University of California (UC)-University of California (UC), NorthWest Research Associates (NWRA), CONICET-UNC Córdoba Argentina, Dirección Meteorológica de Chile (DMC), 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), 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), Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science Zürich (IAC), Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH Zürich), Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute (UHMI), National Antarctic Scientific Center of Ukraine, Biogéosciences UMR 6282 (BGS), Université de Bourgogne (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Universidad de Santiago de Chile Santiago (USACH), Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI), British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Space Science and Engineering Center Madison (SSEC), University of Wisconsin-Madison, Universidad de Magallanes (UMAG), Instituto Antártico Argentino, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas Buenos Aires (CONICET), Université de Liège, ANR-20-CE01-0013,ARCA,Climatologie des rivières atmosphériques en Antarctique(2020)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; Amundsen Sea; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Antarctica; Ice Shelves
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04320202; https://hal.science/hal-04320202/document; https://hal.science/hal-04320202/file/s41612-023-00529-6.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-023-00529-6

International audience The Antarctic Peninsula (AP) experienced a new extreme warm event and record-high surface melt in February 2022, rivaling the recent temperature records from 2015 and 2020, and contributing to the alarming series of extreme warm events over this region showing stronger warming compared to the rest of Antarctica. Here, the drivers and impacts of the event are analyzed in detail using a range of observational and modeling data. The northern/northwestern AP was directly impacted by an intense atmospheric river (AR) attaining category 3 on the AR scale, which brought anomalous heat and rainfall, while the AR-enhanced foehn effect further warmed its northeastern side. The event was triggered by multiple large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns linking the AR formation to tropical convection anomalies and stationary Rossby waves, with an anomalous Amundsen Sea Low and a record-breaking high-pressure system east of the AP. This multivariate and spatial compound event culminated in widespread and intense surface melt across the AP. Circulation analog analysis shows that global warming played a role in the amplification and increased probability of the event. Increasing frequency of such events can undermine the stability of the AP ice shelves, with multiple local to global impacts, including acceleration of the AP ice mass loss and changes in sensitive ecosystems.