Spatial variability of surface mass balance along a traverse route from Zhongshan station to Dome A, Antarctica

Ding, Minghu; Xiao, Cunde; Li, Yuansheng; Ren, Jiawen; Hou, Shugui; Jin, Bo; Sun, Bо

doi:10.3189/002214311797409820

Cited by 90 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Most recently, the SMB has been evaluated at selected sites using stake farms Urbini et al, 2008;Kameda et al, 2008;Ding et al, 2011a). In general, however, seasonal cycles are difficult to observe at sites with low accumulations (below approximately 70 kg m −2 yr −1 ), such as the polar plateau of the EAIS and windy sites, because the seasonally deposited chemical or physical signals are frequently erased or changed by the action of the nearsurface wind .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A synthesis of the Antarctic surface mass balance during the last 800 yr

et al. 2013

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Abstract. Global climate models suggest that Antarctic snowfall should increase in a warming climate and mitigate rises in the sea level. Several processes affect surface mass balance (SMB), introducing large uncertainties in past, present and future ice sheet mass balance. To provide an extended perspective on the past SMB of Antarctica, we used 67 firn/ice core records to reconstruct the temporal variability in the SMB over the past 800 yr and, in greater detail, over the last 200 yr.Our SMB reconstructions indicate that the SMB changes over most of Antarctica are statistically negligible and that the current SMB is not exceptionally high compared to the last 800 yr. High-accumulation periods have occurred in the past, specifically during the 1370s and 1610s. However, a clear increase in accumulation of more than 10 % has occurred in high SMB coastal regions and over the highest part of the East Antarctic ice divide since the 1960s. To explain the differences in behaviour between the coastal/ice divide sites and the rest of Antarctica, we suggest that a higher frequency of blocking anticyclones increases the precipitation at coastal sites, leading to the advection of moist air in the highest areas, whereas blowing snow and/or erosion have significant negative impacts on the SMB at windy sites. Eight hundred years of stacked records of the SMB mimic the total solar irradiance during the 13th and 18th centuries. The link between those two variables is probably indirect and linked to a teleconnection in atmospheric circulation that forces complex feedback between the tropical Pacific and Antarctica via the generation and propagation of a large-scale atmospheric wave train.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A synthesis of the Antarctic surface mass balance during the last 800 yr

et al. 2013

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“…No significant trend was found in accumulation rates in cores up to 100 years old before 1996 from Amundsenisen in DML . The Dome C area (Frezzotti et al, 2005;Urbini et al, 2008) has exhibited high accumulation since the 1960s, as observed along the traverse between Dome Fuji and EPICA DML, whereas no significant changes have been apparent at Dome A since 1260 (Ding et al, 2011;Hou et al, 2009). In the Talos Dome area at the border between EAP and VL, century-scale variability shows a slight increase (of a few percent) in accumulation rates over the last 200 years, in particular since the 1960s, compared with the period 1816-1965 (Frezzotti et al, 2007).…”

Section: Drivers Of Regional Precipitation 321 East Antarctic Platementioning

confidence: 99%

Regional Antarctic snow accumulation over the past 1000 years

et al. 2017

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Abstract. Here we present Antarctic snow accumulation variability at the regional scale over the past 1000 years. A total of 79 ice core snow accumulation records were gathered and assigned to seven geographical regions, separating the high-accumulation coastal zones below 2000 m of elevation from the dry central Antarctic Plateau. The regional composites of annual snow accumulation were evaluated against modelled surface mass balance (SMB) from RACMO2.3p2 and precipitation from ERA-Interim reanalysis. With the exception of the Weddell Sea coast, the low-elevation composites capture the regional precipitation and SMB variability as defined by the models. The central Antarctic sites lack coherency and either do not represent regional precipitation or indicate the model inability to capture relevant precipitation processes in the cold, dry central plateau. Our results show that SMB for the total Antarctic Ice Sheet (including ice shelves) has increased at a rate of 7 ± 0.13 Gt decade −1 since 1800 AD, representing a net reduction in sea level of ∼ 0.02 mm decade −1 since 1800 and ∼ 0.04 mm decade −1 since 1900 AD. The largest contribution is from the Antarctic Peninsula (∼ 75 %) where the annual average SMB during the most recent decade (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)) is 123 ± 44 Gt yr −1 higher than the annual average during the first decade of the 19th century. Only four ice core records cover the full 1000 years, and they suggest a decrease in snow accumulation during this period. However, our study emphasizes the importance of low-elevation coastal zones, which have been under-represented in previous investigations of temporal snow accumulation.

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“…However, at two megadune field sites, 81.248 S, 124.58 E and 75.58 S, 129.58 E (Frezzotti and others, 2002b;Albert and others, 2004;Scambos and others, 2006), and over long-term snow stake fields (e.g. JARE and the Chinese Antarctic Research Expedition (CHINARE) (Motoyama and others, 2008;Ding and others, 2011)), the adjacent accumulation highs do not compensate for the near-zero glaze region extent relative to regional accumulation estimates or nearby field measurements (e.g. JARE line; Fig.…”

Section: Field Characteristics Of Wind-glaze Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3a and b). To determine thresholds for the windglaze mapping algorithm, we use five sets of extensive, nearcontinuous field measurements of SMB: (1) the Norway-US Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica GPR profiles (Mü ller and others, 2010); (2) the JARE repeat snow stake-line measurements between 1993 and 2007 (503 stakes for 14 seasons; Motoyama and others (2008) and other references in the JARE data report series); (3) the CHINARE repeat snow stake-line measurements (528 sites, measured four times over 1997-2008Ding and others, 2011); (4) GPR profile estimates from the megadune field site near 80.248 S, 124.58 W crossing two -radiation measurements (Scambos and others, 2006;Courville and others, 2007); and (5) GPRdetermined accumulation from a set of traverses and ice cores near Talos Dome others, 2005, 2007). Locations of the field accumulation measurements are shown in Figure 3c.…”

Section: Remote-sensing Datasets and Measurement Errorsmentioning

confidence: 99%