Antarctic Glacial Melt as a Driver of Recent Southern Ocean Climate Trends
Recent trends in Southern Ocean (SO) climate—of surface cooling, freshening, and sea ice expansion—are not captured in historical climate simulations. Here we demonstrate that the addition of a plausible increase in Antarctic meltwater to a coupled climate model can produce a closer match to a wide...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133809.2 |
| _version_ | 1811070649329778688 |
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| author | Rye, Craig D Marshall, John Kelley, Maxwell Russell, Gary Nazarenko, Larissa S Kostov, Yavor Schmidt, Gavin A Hansen, James |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Rye, Craig D Marshall, John Kelley, Maxwell Russell, Gary Nazarenko, Larissa S Kostov, Yavor Schmidt, Gavin A Hansen, James |
| author_sort | Rye, Craig D |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Recent trends in Southern Ocean (SO) climate—of surface cooling, freshening, and sea ice expansion—are not captured in historical climate simulations. Here we demonstrate that the addition of a plausible increase in Antarctic meltwater to a coupled climate model can produce a closer match to a wide range of climate trends. We use an ensemble of simulations of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies Earth system model to compute “climate response functions” (CRFs) for the addition of meltwater. These imply a cooling and freshening of the SO, an expansion of sea ice, and an increase in steric height, all consistent with observations since 1992. The CRF framework allows one to compare the efficacy of Antarctic meltwater as a driver of SO climate trends, relative to greenhouse gas and surface wind forcing. The meltwater CRFs presented here strongly suggest that interactive Antarctic ice melt should be included in climate models. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:39:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/133809.2 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:39:24Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/133809.22021-12-06T14:44:41Z Antarctic Glacial Melt as a Driver of Recent Southern Ocean Climate Trends Rye, Craig D Marshall, John Kelley, Maxwell Russell, Gary Nazarenko, Larissa S Kostov, Yavor Schmidt, Gavin A Hansen, James Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Recent trends in Southern Ocean (SO) climate—of surface cooling, freshening, and sea ice expansion—are not captured in historical climate simulations. Here we demonstrate that the addition of a plausible increase in Antarctic meltwater to a coupled climate model can produce a closer match to a wide range of climate trends. We use an ensemble of simulations of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies Earth system model to compute “climate response functions” (CRFs) for the addition of meltwater. These imply a cooling and freshening of the SO, an expansion of sea ice, and an increase in steric height, all consistent with observations since 1992. The CRF framework allows one to compare the efficacy of Antarctic meltwater as a driver of SO climate trends, relative to greenhouse gas and surface wind forcing. The meltwater CRFs presented here strongly suggest that interactive Antarctic ice melt should be included in climate models. 2021-12-06T14:44:40Z 2021-10-27T19:56:47Z 2021-12-06T14:44:40Z 2020 2021-09-17T13:19:52Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133809.2 en 10.1029/2019GL086892 Geophysical Research Letters Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/octet-stream American Geophysical Union (AGU) MIT web domain |
| spellingShingle | Rye, Craig D Marshall, John Kelley, Maxwell Russell, Gary Nazarenko, Larissa S Kostov, Yavor Schmidt, Gavin A Hansen, James Antarctic Glacial Melt as a Driver of Recent Southern Ocean Climate Trends |
| title | Antarctic Glacial Melt as a Driver of Recent Southern Ocean Climate Trends |
| title_full | Antarctic Glacial Melt as a Driver of Recent Southern Ocean Climate Trends |
| title_fullStr | Antarctic Glacial Melt as a Driver of Recent Southern Ocean Climate Trends |
| title_full_unstemmed | Antarctic Glacial Melt as a Driver of Recent Southern Ocean Climate Trends |
| title_short | Antarctic Glacial Melt as a Driver of Recent Southern Ocean Climate Trends |
| title_sort | antarctic glacial melt as a driver of recent southern ocean climate trends |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133809.2 |
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