The Springtime Influence of Natural Tropical Pacific Variability on the Surface Climate of the Ross Ice Shelf, West Antarctica: Implications for Ice Shelf Thinning.

ABSTRACT: Observational records starting in the 1950s show West Antarctica is amongst the most rapidly warming regions on the planet. Together with increased intrusions of warm circumpolar deep water (CDW) onto the continental shelf due to local wind forcing (the primary mechanism in recent decades), this has resulted in enhanced surface and basal melting of floating ice shelves and an associated acceleration and thinning of West Antarctic outlet glaciers, increasing the rate of global sea level rise. In this study, it is shown that during the austral spring season, significant surface warming across West Antarctica has shifted westward to the Ross Ice Shelf in recent decades in response to enhanced cyclonic circulation over the Ross Sea. These circulation changes are caused by a Rossby wave train f

SUBMITTER: Clem KR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6086883 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature