Open Access
Important role for ocean warming and increased ice-shelf melt in Antarctic sea-ice expansion
Richard Bintanja,Geert Jan van Oldenborgh,S. Drijhout,Bert Wouters,Caroline A. Katsman +4 more
- Vol. 2013
TLDR
In this paper, the authors show that accelerated basal melting of Antarctic ice shelves is likely to have contributed significantly to sea-ice expansion and suggest that cool and fresh surface water from ice-shelf melt indeed leads to expanding sea ice in austral autumn and winter.Abstract:
Changes in sea ice significantly modulate climate change because of its high reflective and strong insulating nature. In contrast to Arctic sea ice, sea ice surrounding Antarctica has expanded1, with record extent2 in 2010. This ice expansion has previously been attributed to dynamical atmospheric changes that induce atmospheric cooling3. Here we show that accelerated basal melting of Antarctic ice shelves is likely to have contributed significantly to sea-ice expansion. Specifically, we present observations indicating that melt water from Antarctica’s ice shelves accumulates in a cool and fresh surface layer that shields the surface ocean from the warmer deeper waters that are melting the ice shelves. Simulating these processes in a coupled climate model we find that cool and fresh surface water from ice-shelf melt indeed leads to expanding sea ice in austral autumn and winter. This powerful negative feedback counteracts Southern Hemispheric atmospheric warming. Although changes in atmospheric dynamics most likely govern regional sea-ice trends4, our analyses indicate that the overall sea-ice trend is dominated by increased ice-shelf melt. We suggest that cool sea surface temperatures around Antarctica could offset projected snowfall increases in Antarctica, with implications for estimates of future sea-level rise.read more
Citations
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Future increases in Arctic precipitation linked to local evaporation and sea-ice retreat
Richard Bintanja,Frank Selten +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used state-of-the-art global climate models to show that the projected increases in Arctic precipitation over the twenty-first century, which peak in late autumn and winter, are instead due mainly to strongly intensified local surface evaporation (maximum in winter), and only to a lesser degree due to enhanced moisture inflow from lower latitudes.
Earth's Future Probabilistic 21st and 22nd century sea-level projections at a global network of tide-gauge sites
Robert E. Kopp,M. Horton,Christopher M. Little,Jerry X. Mitrovica,Michael Oppenheimer,Benjamin H. Strauss,Claudia Tebaldi +6 more
TL;DR: This article presented a global set of local sea-level (LSL) projections to inform decisions on timescales ranging from the com- ing decades through the 22nd century, and provided complete probability distributions, informed by a combination of expert community assessment, expert elicitation, and process modeling.
Journal ArticleDOI
Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling, and modern observations that 2 °C global warming could be dangerous
James Hansen,Makiko Sato,Paul J. Hearty,Reto Ruedy,Maxwell Kelley,Valérie Masson-Delmotte,Gary L. Russell,George Tselioudis,Junji Cao,Eric Rignot,Eric Rignot,Isabella Velicogna,Isabella Velicogna,Blair R. Tormey,Bailey G. Donovan,Evgeniya Kandiano,Karina von Schuckmann,Pushker Kharecha,Pushker Kharecha,Allegra N. LeGrande,Michael Bauer,Michael Bauer,K. Lo +22 more
TL;DR: The authors used numerical climate simulations, paleoclimate data, and modern observations to study the effect of growing ice melt from Antarctica and Greenland and found that ice mass loss from the most vulnerable ice, sufficient to raise sea level several meters, is better approximated as exponential than by a more linear response.
Journal ArticleDOI
Climate change and Southern Ocean ecosystems I: how changes in physical habitats directly affect marine biota
Andrew J. Constable,Andrew J. Constable,Jessica Melbourne-Thomas,Jessica Melbourne-Thomas,Stuart Corney,Kevin R. Arrigo,Christophe Barbraud,David K. A. Barnes,Nathaniel L. Bindoff,Nathaniel L. Bindoff,Nathaniel L. Bindoff,Philip W. Boyd,Philip W. Boyd,Angelika Brandt,Daniel P. Costa,Andrew T. Davidson,Andrew T. Davidson,Hugh W. Ducklow,Louise Emmerson,Mitsuo Fukuchi,Julian Gutt,Mark A. Hindell,Eileen E. Hofmann,Graham Hosie,Graham Hosie,Takahiro Iida,Sarah Jacob,Nadine M. Johnston,So Kawaguchi,So Kawaguchi,Nobuo Kokubun,Philippe Koubbi,Mary-Anne Lea,Azwianewi B. Makhado,Robert A. Massom,Robert A. Massom,Klaus M Meiners,Klaus M Meiners,Michael P. Meredith,Eugene J. Murphy,Stephen Nicol,Stephen Nicol,Keith Reid,Kate Richerson,Martin J. Riddle,Stephen R. Rintoul,Stephen R. Rintoul,Walker O. Smith,Colin Southwell,Colin Southwell,Jonathon S. Stark,Michael D. Sumner,Kerrie M. Swadling,Kunio T. Takahashi,Phil Trathan,Dirk Welsford,Henri Weimerskirch,Karen J. Westwood,Karen J. Westwood,Barbara Wienecke,Dieter Wolf-Gladrow,Simon W. Wright,Simon W. Wright,José C. Xavier,José C. Xavier,Philippe Ziegler +65 more
TL;DR: Current and expected changes in ASO physical habitats in response to climate change are reviewed, including how these changes may impact the autecology of marine biota: microbes, zooplankton, salps, Antarctic krill, fish, cephalopods, marine mammals, seabirds, and benthos.
Wind-driven trends in Antarctic sea ice drift
Paul R. Holland,Ron Kwok +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a data set of satellite-tracked sea-ice motion for the period of 1992-2010 that reveals large and statistically significant trends in Antarctic ice drift, which, in most sectors, can be linked to local winds.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
An Improved In Situ and Satellite SST Analysis for Climate
TL;DR: A weekly 1° spatial resolution optimum interpolation (OI) sea surface temperature (SST) analysis has been produced at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) using both in situ and satellite data from November 1981 to the present as mentioned in this paper.
Journal ArticleDOI
The central role of diminishing sea ice in recent Arctic temperature amplification.
James A. Screen,Ian Simmonds +1 more
TL;DR: It is shown that the Arctic warming is strongest at the surface during most of the year and is primarily consistent with reductions in sea ice cover, and suggests that strong positive ice–temperature feedbacks have emerged in the Arctic, increasing the chances of further rapid warming and sea ice loss.
Journal ArticleDOI
Interpretation of recent Southern Hemisphere climate change
TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that the largest and most significant tropospheric trends can be traced to recent trends in the lower stratospheric polar vortex, which are due largely to photochemical ozone losses, and the trend toward stronger circumpolar flow has contributed substantially to the observed warming over the Antarctic Peninsula and Patagonia and to the cooling over eastern Antarctica and the Antarctic plateau.
Journal ArticleDOI
Antarctic ice-sheet loss driven by basal melting of ice shelves
Hamish D. Pritchard,Stefan R. M. Ligtenberg,Helen A. Fricker,David G. Vaughan,M. R. van den Broeke,Laurie Padman +5 more
TL;DR: Satellite laser altimetry and modelling of the surface firn layer are used to reveal the circum-Antarctic pattern of ice-shelf thinning through increased basal melt, which implies that climate forcing through changing winds influences Antarctic ice-sheet mass balance, and hence global sea level, on annual to decadal timescales.
Journal ArticleDOI
Acceleration of the contribution of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to sea level rise
Eric Rignot,Eric Rignot,Isabella Velicogna,Isabella Velicogna,M. R. van den Broeke,Andrew J. Monaghan,Jan T. M. Lenaerts +6 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a consistent record of mass balance for the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets over the past two decades, validated by the comparison of two independent techniques over the last 8 years: one differencing perimeter loss from net accumulation, and one using a dense time series of time-variable gravity.
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