Widespread complex flow in the interior of the antarctic ice sheet

It has been suggested that as much as 90% of the discharge from the Antarctic Ice Sheet is drained through a small number of fast-moving ice streams and outlet glaciers fed by relatively stable and inactive catchment areas. Here, evidence obtained from balance velocity estimates suggests that each major drainage basin is fed by complex systems of tributaries that penetrate up to 1000 kilometers from the grounding line into the interior of the ice sheet. This finding has important consequences for the modeled or estimated dynamic response time of past and present ice sheets to climate forcing.     

Larsen ice shelf has progressively thinned

The retreat and collapse of Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves in tandem with a regional atmospheric warming has fueled speculation as to how these events may be related. Satellite radar altimeter measurements show that between 1992 and 2001 the Larsen Ice Shelf lowered by up to 0.27 +/- 0.11 meters per year. The lowering is explained by increased summer melt-water and the loss of basal ice through melting. Enhanced ocean-driven melting may provide a simple link between regional climate warming and the successive disintegration of sections of the Larsen Ice Shelf.     

Glaciers dominate eustatic sea-level rise in the 21st century

Ice loss to the sea currently accounts for virtually all of the sea-level rise that is not attributable to ocean warming, and about 60% of the ice loss is from glaciers and ice caps rather than from the two ice sheets. The contribution of these smaller glaciers has accelerated over the past decade, in part due to marked thinning and retreat of marine-terminating glaciers associated with a dynamic instability that is generally not considered in mass-balance and climate modeling. This acceleration of glacier melt may cause 0.1 to 0.25 meter of additional sea-level rise by 2100.     

Mass balance of polar ice sheets

Recent advances in the determination of the mass balance of polar ice sheets show that the Greenland Ice Sheet is losing mass by near-coastal thinning, and that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, with thickening in the west and thinning in the north, is probably thinning overall. The mass imbalance of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is likely to be small, but even its sign cannot yet be determined. Large sectors of ice in southeast Greenland, the Amundsen Sea Embayment of West Antarctica, and the Antarctic Peninsula are changing quite rapidly as a result of processes not yet understood.     

南极普里兹湾关键物理海洋学问题研究进展及未来趋势

南极普里兹湾及其邻近海域关键物理海洋学问题包括水团特性、环流特征和冰架 海洋 海冰相互作用过程等。该海域水团可以分为南极表层水、绕极深层水、南极底层水、南极陆架水和南极冰架水等,受外部条件影响,这些水团时空变化显著。普里兹湾区域的环流以普里兹湾流涡,西向的沿岸流和东向的绕极流,以及两者之间的南极辐散带的环流为主要特征,地形是环流特征的关键影响因素。埃默里冰架 海洋的相互作用过程显著影响普里兹湾海域的水团特性和环流状况。冰泵机制,是埃默里冰架外海水进入冰穴,并引起冰架底部消融和冻结的重要原因。冰架 海洋 海冰相互作用形成的低温高盐水,是普里兹湾形成南极底层水的潜在因素之一。加强现场观测,并建立高分辨率的冰架 海洋 海冰耦合模型系统是研究普里兹湾海域物理海洋学关键过程和变化机制的重要手段,是南极研究的发展趋势。     

Interhemispheric ice-sheet synchronicity during the Last Glacial Maximum

The timing of the last maximum extent of the Antarctic ice sheets relative to those in the Northern Hemisphere remains poorly understood. We develop a chronology for the Weddell Sea sector of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet that, combined with ages from other Antarctic ice-sheet sectors, indicates that the advance to and retreat from their maximum extent was within dating uncertainties synchronous with most sectors of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. Surface climate forcing of Antarctic mass balance would probably cause an opposite response, whereby a warming climate would increase accumulation but not surface melting. Our new data support teleconnections involving sea-level forcing from Northern Hemisphere ice sheets and changes in North Atlantic deep-water formation and attendant heat flux to Antarctic grounding lines to synchronize the hemispheric ice sheets.     

Holocene deglaciation of Marie Byrd Land,West Antarctica

Surface exposure ages of glacial deposits in the Ford Ranges of western Marie Byrd Land indicate continuous thinning of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet by more than 700 meters near the coast throughout the past 10,000 years. Deglaciation lagged the disappearance of ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere by thousands of years and may still be under way. These results provide further evidence that parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet are on a long-term trajectory of decline. West Antarctic melting contributed water to the oceans in the late Holocene and may continue to do so in the future.     

Measurements of time-variable gravity show mass loss in Antarctica

Using measurements of time-variable gravity from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites, we determined mass variations of the Antarctic ice sheet during 2002-2005. We found that the mass of the ice sheet decreased significantly, at a rate of 152 +/- 80 cubic kilometers of ice per year, which is equivalent to 0.4 +/- 0.2 millimeters of global sea-level rise per year. Most of this mass loss came from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.     

Ice scour disturbance in Antarctic waters

The West Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest warming regions on Earth, and, as a consequence, most maritime glaciers and ice shelves in the region have significantly retreated over the past few decades. We collected a multiyear data set on ice scouring frequency from Antarctica by using unique experimental markers and scuba diving surveys. We show that the annual intensity of ice scouring is negatively correlated with the duration of the winter fast ice season. Because fast ice extent and duration is currently in decline in the region after recent rapid warming, it is likely that marine benthic communities are set for even more scouring in the near future.     

Elevation changes in Antarctica mainly determined by accumulation variability

Antarctic Ice Sheet elevation changes, which are used to estimate changes in the mass of the interior regions, are caused by variations in the depth of the firn layer. We quantified the effects of temperature and accumulation variability on firn layer thickness by simulating the 1980-2004 Antarctic firn depth variability. For most of Antarctica, the magnitudes of firn depth changes were comparable to those of observed ice sheet elevation changes. The current satellite observational period ( approximately 15 years) is too short to neglect these fluctuations in firn depth when computing recent ice sheet mass changes. The amount of surface lowering in the Amundsen Sea Embayment revealed by satellite radar altimetry (1995-2003) was increased by including firn depth fluctuations, while a large area of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet slowly grew as a result of increased accumulation.     

Accelerated sea-level rise from West Antarctica

Recent aircraft and satellite laser altimeter surveys of the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica show that local glaciers are discharging about 250 cubic kilometers of ice per year to the ocean, almost 60% more than is accumulated within their catchment basins. This discharge is sufficient to raise sea level by more than 0.2 millimeters per year. Glacier thinning rates near the coast during 2002-2003 are much larger than those observed during the 1990s. Most of these glaciers flow into floating ice shelves over bedrock up to hundreds of meters deeper than previous estimates, providing exit routes for ice from further inland if ice-sheet collapse is under way.     

Pliocene paleoclimate and East antarctic ice-sheet history from surficial ash deposits

The preservation, age, and stratigraphic relation of an in situ ashfall layer with an underlying desert pavement in Arena Valley, southern Victoria Land, indicate that a cold-desert climate has persisted in Arena Valley during the past 4.3 million years. These data indicate that the present East Antarctic Ice Sheet has endured for this time and that average temperatures during the Pliocene in Arena Valley were no greater than 3 degrees C above present values. One implication is that the collapse of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet due to greenhouse warming is unlikely, even if global atmospheric temperatures rise to levels last experienced during mid-Pliocene times.     

Physical conditions at the base of a fast moving antarctic ice stream

Boreholes drilled to the bottom of ice stream B in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet reveal that the base of the ice stream is at the melting point and the basal water pressure is within about 1.6 bars of the ice overburden pressure. These conditions allow the rapid ice streaming motion to occur by basal sliding or by shear deformation of unconsolidated sediments that underlie the ice in a layer at least 2 meters thick. The mechanics of ice streaming plays a role in the response of the ice sheet to climatic change.     

2001-2002年间南极埃默里冰架水的空间分布与季节变化

南极冰架水是由海洋—冰架相互作用形成的位温低于局地冰点的水团,较周围水体相对低温、低盐,是衡量冰架物质平衡的良好指示剂。基于澳大利亚埃默里冰架海洋研究计划（AMISOR）2001至2002年的现场观测资料,本文开展了埃默里冰架水空间分布的季节变化与输运特性研究。CTD结果显示,冰架水夏季普遍分布在冰架前缘的西部、中部和东部海域,但中、西部海域的冰架水核心温度更低、分布范围更广。锚碇潜标结果显示,冰架水的分布存在显著的季节变化：冬季,冰架水盘踞在冰架前缘71.0°E以西海域和71.5-72.5°E的中部海域,以流出为主要特征;夏季,除了冰架前缘71.5-72.5°E的中部海域仍被冰架水控制,冰架水还出现在冰架前缘73.5°E以东海域,并以流入为主要特征。而冰架水在冰架前缘西部海域的出流强度明显大于东部海域的入流强度,全年冰架水主要从冰架底部输出进入普里兹湾占主导。     

Ross sea region in the middle miocene: a glimpse into the past

Fossil diatoms and pollen from sea-floor sediments beneath the Ross Ice Shelf indicate that a permanent ice cover was not present in the Ross Sea and that vegetation including angiosperms, gymnosperms, and ferns existed on at least some parts of the largely glaciated Antarctic mainland in the late middle Miocene.     

Sea-level fingerprinting as a direct test for the source of global meltwater pulse IA

The ice reservoir that served as the source for the meltwater pulse IA remains enigmatic and controversial. We show that each of the melting scenarios that have been proposed for the event produces a distinct variation, or fingerprint, in the global distribution of meltwater. We compare sea-level fingerprints associated with various melting scenarios to existing sea-level records from Barbados and the Sunda Shelf and conclude that the southern Laurentide Ice Sheet could not have been the sole source of the meltwater pulse, whereas a substantial contribution from the Antarctic Ice Sheet is consistent with these records.     

Timing of millennial-scale climate change in Antarctica and Greenland during the last glacial period

A precise relative chronology for Greenland and West Antarctic paleotemperature is extended to 90,000 years ago, based on correlation of atmospheric methane records from the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 and Byrd ice cores. Over this period, the onset of seven major millennial-scale warmings in Antarctica preceded the onset of Greenland warmings by 1500 to 3000 years. In general, Antarctic temperatures increased gradually while Greenland temperatures were decreasing or constant, and the termination of Antarctic warming was apparently coincident with the onset of rapid warming in Greenland. This pattern provides further evidence for the operation of a "bipolar see-saw" in air temperatures and an oceanic teleconnection between the hemispheres on millennial time scales.     

Near-synchronous interhemispheric termination of the last glacial maximum in mid-latitudes

Isotopic records from polar ice cores imply globally asynchronous warming at the end of the last glaciation. However, 10Be exposure dates show that large-scale retreat of mid-latitude Last Glacial Maximum glaciers commenced at about the same time in both hemispheres. The timing of retreat is consistent with the onset of temperature and atmospheric CO2 increases in Antarctic ice cores. We suggest that a global trend of rising summer temperatures at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum was obscured in North Atlantic regions by hypercold winters associated with unusually extensive winter sea ice.     

Simulating Arctic climate warmth and icefield retreat in the last interglaciation

In the future, Arctic warming and the melting of polar glaciers will be considerable, but the magnitude of both is uncertain. We used a global climate model, a dynamic ice sheet model, and paleoclimatic data to evaluate Northern Hemisphere high-latitude warming and its impact on Arctic icefields during the Last Interglaciation. Our simulated climate matches paleoclimatic observations of past warming, and the combination of physically based climate and ice-sheet modeling with ice-core constraints indicate that the Greenland Ice Sheet and other circum-Arctic ice fields likely contributed 2.2 to 3.4 meters of sea-level rise during the Last Interglaciation.     

Inland thinning of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica

The Pine Island Glacier (PIG) transports 69 cubic kilometers of ice each year from approximately 10% of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). It is possible that a retreat of the PIG may accelerate ice discharge from the WAIS interior. Satellite altimetry and interferometry show that the grounded PIG thinned by up to 1.6 meters per year between 1992 and 1999, affecting 150 kilometers of the inland glacier. The thinning cannot be explained by short-term variability in accumulation and must result from glacier dynamics.