Snowfall‐driven mass change on the East Antarctic ice sheet

[1] An improved understanding of processes dominating the sensitive balance between mass loss primarily due to glacial discharge and mass gain through precipitation is essential for determining the future behavior of the Antarctic ice sheet and its contribution to sea level rise. While satellite observations of Antarctica indicate that West Antarctica experiences dramatic mass loss along the Antarctic Peninsula and Pine Island Glacier, East Antarctica has remained comparably stable. In this study, we describe the causes and magnitude of recent extreme precipitation events along the East Antarctic coast that led to significant regional mass accumulations that partially compensate for some of the recent global ice mass losses that contribute to global sea level rise. The gain of almost 350 Gt from 2009 to 2011 is equivalent to a decrease in global mean sea level at a rate of 0.32 mm/yr over this three-year period.

[1]  Tong Lee,et al.  Increasing intensity of El Niño in the central‐equatorial Pacific , 2010 .

[2]  J. W. Kidson,et al.  Low-Frequency Variability of Southern Hemisphere Sea Level Pressure and Weather System Activity , 1997 .

[3]  D. Bromwich,et al.  Insignificant Change in Antarctic Snowfall Since the International Geophysical Year , 2006, Science.

[4]  Eric Rignot,et al.  Recent Antarctic ice mass loss from radar interferometry and regional climate modelling , 2008 .

[5]  I. Velicogna.  Increasing rates of ice mass loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets revealed by GRACE , 2009 .

[6]  E. van Meijgaard,et al.  A new, high‐resolution surface mass balance map of Antarctica (1979–2010) based on regional atmospheric climate modeling , 2012 .

[7]  N. Hirasawa,et al.  Abrupt changes in meteorological conditions observed at an inland Antarctic Station in association with wintertime blocking , 2000 .

[8]  F. Landerer,et al.  Terrestrial water budget of the Eurasian pan‐Arctic from GRACE satellite measurements during 2003–2009 , 2010 .

[9]  Edward Hanna,et al.  Snowfall-Driven Growth in East Antarctic Ice Sheet Mitigates Recent Sea-Level Rise , 2005, Science.

[10]  D. Vaughan,et al.  Reassessment of net surface mass balance in Antarctica , 1999 .

[11]  R. Bennartz,et al.  Uncertainty Analysis for CloudSat Snowfall Retrievals , 2011 .

[12]  D. Chambers,et al.  Estimating Geocenter Variations from a Combination of GRACE and Ocean Model Output , 2008 .

[13]  J. Thepaut,et al.  The ERA‐Interim reanalysis: configuration and performance of the data assimilation system , 2011 .

[14]  S. Swenson,et al.  Accuracy of GRACE mass estimates , 2006 .

[15]  David J. Karoly,et al.  Southern Hemisphere Circulation Features Associated with El Niño-Southern Oscillation Events , 1989 .

[16]  Guosheng Liu,et al.  Deriving snow cloud characteristics from CloudSat observations , 2008 .

[17]  Kevin W. Manning,et al.  Precipitation regime of Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, derived from Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS) archive data , 2008 .

[18]  F. Bryan,et al.  Time variability of the Earth's gravity field: Hydrological and oceanic effects and their possible detection using GRACE , 1998 .

[19]  E. Meijgaard,et al.  Insignificant change in Antarctic snowmelt volume since 1979 , 2012 .

[20]  Eric Rignot,et al.  Changes in ice dynamics and mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet , 2006, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

[21]  S. Kobayashi,et al.  The JRA-25 Reanalysis , 2007 .

[22]  M. Cheng,et al.  Variations in the Earth's oblateness during the past 28 years , 2004 .

[23]  Ingo Sasgen,et al.  Satellite gravimetry observation of Antarctic snow accumulation related to ENSO , 2010 .

[24]  Simone Tanelli,et al.  CloudSat mission: Performance and early science after the first year of operation , 2008 .

[25]  S. Swenson,et al.  Post‐processing removal of correlated errors in GRACE data , 2006 .

[26]  I. Simmonds,et al.  Annular variations in moisture transport mechanisms and the abundance of δ18O in Antarctic snow , 2002 .

[27]  Eric Rignot,et al.  Acceleration of the contribution of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to sea level rise , 2011 .

[28]  S. Matrosov,et al.  Influence of multiple scattering on CloudSat measurements in snow: A model study , 2009 .

[29]  Archie Paulson,et al.  FAST TRACK PAPER: Inference of mantle viscosity from GRACE and relative sea level data , 2007 .

[30]  M. R. van den Broeke,et al.  Ice Sheets and Sea Level: Thinking Outside the Box , 2011 .