Benjamin Pohl, Vincent Favier, Jonathan Wille, Danielle G Udy, Tessa R Vance, Julien Pergaud, Niels Dutrievoz, Juliette Blanchet, Christoph Kittel, Charles Amory, Gerhard Krinner, Francis Codron. (2021). Relationship Between Weather Regimes and Atmospheric Rivers in East Antarctica (Vol. 126).
Abstract: Here, we define weather regimes in the East Antarctica—Southern Ocean sector based on daily anomalies of 700 hPa geopotential height derived from ERA5 reanalysis during 1979–2018. Most regimes and their preferred transitions depict synoptic-scale disturbances propagating eastwards off the Antarctic coastline. While regime sequences are generally short, their interannual variability is strongly driven by the polarity of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM). Regime occurrences are then intersected with atmospheric rivers (ARs) detected over the same region and period. ARs are equiprobable throughout the year, but clearly concentrate during regimes associated with a strong atmospheric ridges/blockings on the eastern part of the domain, which act to channel meridional advection of heat and moisture from the lower latitudes towards Antarctica. Both regimes and ARs significantly shape climate variability in Antarctica. Regimes favorable to AR occurrences are associated with anomalously warm and humid conditions in coastal Antarctica and, to a lesser extent, the hinterland parts of the Antarctic plateau. These anomalies are strongly enhanced during AR events, with warmer anomalies and dramatically amplified snowfall amounts. Large-scale conditions favoring AR development are finally explored. They show weak dependency to the SAM, but particularly strong atmospheric ridges/blockings over the Southern Ocean appear as the most favorable pattern, in which ARs can be embedded, and to which they contribute.
Keywords: atmospheric rivers East Antarctica snowfall amounts temperature anomalies weather regimes
Programme: 411
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Steven Franke, Daniela Jansen, Sebastian Beyer, Niklas Neckel, Tobias Binder, John Paden, Olaf Eisen. (2021). Complex Basal Conditions and Their Influence on Ice Flow at the Onset of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (Vol. 126).
Abstract: Abstract The ice stream geometry and large ice surface velocities at the onset region of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS) are not yet well reproduced by ice sheet models. The quantification of basal sliding and a parametrization of basal conditions remains a major gap. In this study, we assess the basal conditions of the onset region of the NEGIS in a systematic analysis of airborne ultra-wideband radar data. We evaluate basal roughness and basal return echoes in the context of the current ice stream geometry and ice surface velocity. We observe a change from a smooth to a rougher bed where the ice stream widens, and a distinct roughness anisotropy, indicating a preferred orientation of subglacial structures. In the upstream region, the excess ice mass flux through the shear margins is evacuated by ice flow acceleration and along-flow stretching of the ice. At the downstream part, the generally rougher bed topography correlates with a decrease in flow acceleration and lateral variations in ice surface velocity. Together with basal water routing pathways, this hints to two different zones in this part of the NEGIS: the upstream region collecting water, with a reduced basal traction, and downstream, where the ice stream is slowing down and is widening on a rougher bed, with a distribution of basal water toward the shear margins. Our findings support the hypothesis that the NEGIS is strongly interconnected to the subglacial water system in its onset region, but also to the subglacial substrate and morphology.
Keywords: basal roughness bed conditions Greenland Ice Sheet ice stream Northeast Greenland Ice Stream radio-echo sounding
Programme: 1180
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N. Ribeiro, L. Herraiz-Borreguero, S. R. Rintoul, C. R. McMahon, M. Hindell, R. Harcourt, G. Williams. (2021). Warm Modified Circumpolar Deep Water Intrusions Drive Ice Shelf Melt and Inhibit Dense Shelf Water Formation in Vincennes Bay, East Antarctica (Vol. 126).
Abstract: Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) production supplies the deep limb of the global overturning circulation and ventilates the deep ocean. While the Weddell and Ross Seas are recognized as key sites for AABW production, additional sources have been discovered in coastal polynya regions around East Antarctica, most recently at Vincennes Bay. Vincennes Bay, despite encompassing two distinct polynya regions, is considered the weakest source, producing Dense Shelf Water (DSW) only just dense enough to contribute to the lighter density classes of AABW found offshore. Here we provide the first detailed oceanographic observations of the continental shelf in Vincennes Bay (104-111°E), using CTD data from instrumented elephant seals spanning from February to November of 2012. We find that Vincennes Bay has East Antarctica’s warmest recorded intrusions of modified Circumpolar Deep Water (mCDW) and that warm mCDW drives basal melt under Vanderford and Underwood ice shelves. Our study also provides the first direct observational evidence for the inflow of meltwater to this region, which increases stratification and hinders DSW formation, and thus AABW production. The Vincennes Bay glaciers, together with the Totten Glacier, drain part of the Aurora Basin, which holds up to 7 m of sea level rise equivalent. Our results highlight the vulnerability of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet to intrusions of mCDW.
Keywords: AABW Antarctic Coastal Circulation Antarctic Margins basal melt mCDW intrusions seal CTD
Programme: 109
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Thomas Frederikse, Surendra Adhikari, Tim J. Daley, Sönke Dangendorf, Roland Gehrels, Felix Landerer, Marta Marcos, Thomas L. Newton, Graham Rush, Aimée B. A. Slangen, Guy Wöppelmann. (2021). Constraining 20th-Century Sea-Level Rise in the South Atlantic Ocean (Vol. 126).
Abstract: Sea level in the South Atlantic Ocean has only been measured at a small number of tide-gauge locations, which causes considerable uncertainty in 20th-century sea-level trend estimates in this basin. To obtain a better-constrained sea-level trend in the South Atlantic Ocean, this study aims to answer two questions. The first question is: can we combine new observations, vertical land motion estimates, and information on spatial sampling biases to obtain a likely range of 20th-century sea-level rise in the South Atlantic? We combine existing observations with recovered observations from Dakar and a high-resolution sea-level reconstruction based on salt-marsh sediments from the Falkland Islands and find that the rate of sea-level rise in the South Atlantic has likely been between 1.1 and 2.2 mm year−1 (5%–95% confidence intervals), with a central estimate of 1.6 mm year−1. This rate is on the high side, but not statistically different compared to global-mean trends from recent reconstructions. The second question is: are there any physical processes that could explain a large deviation from the global-mean sea-level trend in the South Atlantic? Sterodynamic (changes in ocean dynamics and steric effects) and gravitation, rotation, and deformation effects related to ice mass loss and land water storage have probably led to a 20th-century sea-level trend in the South Atlantic above the global mean. Both observations and physical processes thus suggest that 20th-century sea-level rise in the South Atlantic has been about 0.3 mm year−1 above the rate of global-mean sea-level rise, although even with the additional observations, the uncertainties are still too large to distinguish a statistically significant difference.
Keywords: data rescue salt-marsh proxies sea-level changes South Atlantic tide gauges
Programme: 688
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R. Sulzbach, H. Dobslaw, M. Thomas. (2021). High-Resolution Numerical Modeling of Barotropic Global Ocean Tides for Satellite Gravimetry (Vol. 126).
Abstract: The recently upgraded barotropic tidal model TiME is employed to study the influence of fundamental tidal processes, the chosen model resolution, and the bathymetric map on the achievable model accuracy, exemplary for the M2 tide. Additionally, the newly introduced pole-rotation scheme allows to estimate the model’s inherent precision (open ocean rms: 0.90 cm) and enables studies of the Arctic domain without numerical deviations originating from pole cap handling. We find that the smallest open ocean rms with respect to the FES14-atlas (3.39 cm) is obtained when tidal dissipation is carried out to similar parts by quadratic bottom friction, wave drag, and parametrized eddy-viscosity. This setting proves versatile to obtaining high accuracy values for a diverse ensemble of additional partial tides. Using the preferred model settings, we show that for certain minor tides it is possible to obtain solutions that are more accurate than results derived with admittance assumptions from data-constrained tidal atlases. As linear admittance derived minor tides are routinely used for de-aliasing of satellite gravimetric data, this opens the potential for improving gravity field products by employing the solutions from TiME.
Keywords: M2-tide minor tides pole-rotation self-attraction and loading tide-generating potential topographic wavedrag
Programme: 688
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Afsaneh Mohammadzaheri, Karin Sigloch, Kasra Hosseini, Mitchell G. Mihalynuk. (2021). Subducted Lithosphere Under South America From Multifrequency P Wave Tomography (Vol. 126).
Abstract: We analyze mantle structure under South America in the DETOX-P1 seismic tomography model, a global-scale, multifrequency inversion of teleseismic P waves. DETOX-P1 inverts the most extensive data set of broadband, waveform-based traveltime measurements to date, complemented by analyst-picked traveltimes from the ISC-EHB catalog. The mantle under South America is sampled by ∼665,000 cross-correlation traveltimes measured on 529 South American broadband stations and on 5,389 stations elsewhere. By their locations, depths, and geometries, we distinguish four high-velocity provinces under South America, interpreted as subducted lithosphere (“slabs”). The deepest (∼1,800–1,200 km depth) and shallowest (<600 km) slab provinces are observed beneath the Andean Cordillera near the continent’s northwest coast. At intermediate depths (1,200–900 km, 900–600 km), two slab provinces are observed farther east, under Brazil, Bolivia and Venezuela, with links to the Caribbean. We interpret the slabs relative to South America’s paleo-position over time, exploring the hypothesis that slabs sank essentially vertically after widening by viscous deformation in the mantle transition zone. The shallowest slab province carries the geometric imprint of the continental margin and represents ocean-beneath-continent subduction during Cenozoic times. The deepest, farthest west slab complex formed under intra-oceanic trenches during late Jurassic and Cretaceous times, far west of South America’s paleo-position adjoined to Africa. The two intermediate slab complexes record the Cretaceous transition from westward intra-oceanic subduction to eastward subduction beneath South America. This geophysical inference matches geologic records of the transition from Jura-Cretaceous, extensional “intra-arc” basins to basin inversion and onset of the modern Andean arc ∼85 Ma.
Keywords: Andes intra-arc intra-oceanic subduction seismic tomography South America structure of the mantel
Programme: 133
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Jun Xie, Risheng Chu, Sidao Ni. (2021). Evaluating Global Tomography Models With Antipodal Ambient Noise Cross-Correlation Functions (Vol. 126).
Abstract: It is essential to evaluate global tomography models, which provide important information for understanding Earth's structure and dynamics. Long-period surface waves propagating between antipodal stations are good candidates for this purpose since they depend on global-scale velocity variations in the upper mantle. In this study, we extract minor-arc and major-arc Rayleigh waves from ambient noise cross correlations between GEOSCOPE station AIS and ∼1,800 USArray stations near the antipode of AIS. We identify two Rayleigh-wave-focusing regions and simulate the observed maximum amplitude pattern at the antipodal region using synthetic surface waves based on three global tomography models. Our simulations suggest that seismic heterogeneity of the tomography models need to be inflated by a factor of 2–3 in oceanic regions to explain the observed focusing pattern of surface waves near the antipodal region.
Keywords: ambient noise cross-correlation functions antipodal surface waves mantle heterogeneity tomography model evaluation
Programme: 133
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Andreas Richter, Alexey A. Ekaykin, Matthias O. Willen, Vladimir Ya. Lipenkov, Andreas Groh, Sergey V. Popov, Mirko Scheinert, Martin Horwath, Reinhard Dietrich. (2021). Surface Mass Balance Models Vs. Stake Observations: A Comparison in the Lake Vostok Region, Central East Antarctica (Vol. 9).
Abstract: The surface mass balance (SMB) is very low over the vast East Antarctic Plateau, for example in the Vostok region, where the mean SMB is on the order of 20–35 kg m-2 a-1. The observation and modeling of spatio-temporal SMB variations are equally challenging in this environment. Stake measurements carried out in the Vostok region provide SMB observations over half a century (1970–2019). This unique data set is compared with SMB estimations of the regional climate models RACMO2.3p2 (RACMO) and MAR3.11 (MAR). We focus on the SMB variations over time scales from months to decades. The comparison requires a rigorous assessment of the uncertainty in the stake observations and the spatial scale dependence of the temporal SMB variations. Our results show that RACMO estimates of annual and multi-year SMB agree well with the observations. The regression slope between modelled and observed temporal variations is close to 1.0 for this model. SMB simulations by MAR are affected by a positive bias which amounts to 6 kg m-2 a-1 at Vostok station and 2 kg m-2 a-1 along two stake profiles between Lake Vostok and Ridge B. None of the models is capable to reproduce the seasonal distributions of SMB and precipitation. Model SMB estimates are used in assessing the ice-mass balance and sea-level contribution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet by the input-output method. Our results provide insights into the uncertainty contribution of the SMB models to such assessments.
Programme: 411
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Andrea Spolaor, Beatrice Moroni, Bartłomiej Luks, Adam Nawrot, Marco Roman, Catherine Larose, Łukasz Stachnik, Federica Bruschi, Krystyna Kozioł, Filip Pawlak, Clara Turetta, Elena Barbaro, Jean-Charles Gallet, David Cappelletti. (2021). Investigation on the Sources and Impact of Trace Elements in the Annual Snowpack and the Firn in the Hansbreen (Southwest Spitsbergen) (Vol. 8).
Abstract: We present a thorough evaluation of the water soluble fraction of the trace element composition (Ca, Sr, Mg, Na, K, Li, B, Rb, U, Ni, Co, As, Cs, Cd, Mo, Se, Eu, Ba, V, Ge, Ga, Cr, Cr, P, Ti, Mn, Zr, Ce, Zn, Fe, Gd, Y, Pb, Bi, Yb, Al, Nb, Er, Nd, Dy, Sm, Ho, Th, La, Lu, Tm, Pr, Tb, Fe, In, Tl) and their fluxes in the annual snowpack and the firn of the Hansbreen (a tidewater glacier terminating in the Hornsund fjord, southwest Spitsbergen). The trace element samples were obtained from a 3 m deep snow pit dug at the plateau of the glacier (450 m a.s.l.), and from a 2 m deep firn core collected from the bottom of the snow pit. The comparison of elemental fluxes and enrichment factors allowed us to constrain specific summer and wintertime deposition patterns of water soluble trace elements in the southern part of the Svalbard archipelago. Our results suggest that the chemical composition of the Hansbreen (and likely other glaciers where the summit is close to the equilibrium line) is mainly affected by summertime deposition of trace elements from local sources and some volatile elements, which may be transported into the Arctic when polar vortex is weak. The melting of the annual snowpack seems to have a minor influence on the overall chemical signature of the glacier ice.
Programme: 1192
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Clive R. McMahon, Fabien Roquet, Sophie Baudel, Mathieu Belbeoch, Sophie Bestley, Clint Blight, Lars Boehme, Fiona Carse, Daniel P. Costa, Michael A. Fedak, Christophe Guinet, Robert Harcourt, Emma Heslop, Mark A. Hindell, Xavier Hoenner, Kim Holland, Mellinda Holland, Fabrice R. A. Jaine, Tiphaine Jeanniard du Dot, Ian Jonsen, Theresa R. Keates, Kit M. Kovacs, Sara Labrousse, Philip Lovell, Christian Lydersen, David March, Matthew Mazloff, Megan K. McKinzie, Mônica M. C. Muelbert, Kevin O’Brien, Lachlan Phillips, Esther Portela, Jonathan Pye, Stephen Rintoul, Katsufumi Sato, Ana M. M. Sequeira, Samantha E. Simmons, Vardis M. Tsontos, Victor Turpin, Esmee van Wijk, Danny Vo, Mia Wege, Frederick Gilbert Whoriskey, Kenady Wilson, Bill Woodward. (2021). Animal Borne Ocean Sensors – AniBOS – An Essential Component of the Global Ocean Observing System (Vol. 8).
Abstract: Marine animals equipped with biological and physical electronic sensors have produced long-term data streams on key marine environmental variables, hydrography, animal behavior and ecology. These data are an essential component of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). The Animal Borne Ocean Sensors (AniBOS) network aims to coordinate the long-term collection and delivery of marine data streams, providing a complementary capability to other GOOS networks that monitor Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs), essential climate variables (ECVs) and essential biodiversity variables (EBVs). AniBOS augments observations of temperature and salinity within the upper ocean, in areas that are under-sampled, providing information that is urgently needed for an improved understanding of climate and ocean variability and for forecasting. Additionally, measurements of chlorophyll fluorescence and dissolved oxygen concentrations are emerging. The observations AniBOS provides are used widely across the research, modeling and operational oceanographic communities. High latitude, shallow coastal shelves and tropical seas have historically been sampled poorly with traditional observing platforms for many reasons including sea ice presence, limited satellite coverage and logistical costs. Animal-borne sensors are helping to fill that gap by collecting and transmitting in near real time an average of 500 temperature-salinity-depth profiles per animal annually and, when instruments are recovered (∼30% of instruments deployed annually, n = 103 ± 34), up to 1,000 profiles per month in these regions. Increased observations from under-sampled regions greatly improve the accuracy and confidence in estimates of ocean state and improve studies of climate variability by delivering data that refine climate prediction estimates at regional and global scales. The GOOS Observations Coordination Group (OCG) reviews, advises on and coordinates activities across the global ocean observing networks to strengthen the effective implementation of the system. AniBOS was formally recognized in 2020 as a GOOS network. This improves our ability to observe the ocean’s structure and animals that live in them more comprehensively, concomitantly improving our understanding of global ocean and climate processes for societal benefit consistent with the UN Sustainability Goals 13 and 14: Climate and Life below Water. Working within the GOOS OCG framework ensures that AniBOS is an essential component of an integrated Global Ocean Observing System.
Programme: 1201
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