The 32-year record-high surface melt in 2019/2020 on the northern George VI Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula
| dc.contributor.author | Banwell, Alison F. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Datta, Rajashree Tri | |
| dc.contributor.author | Dell, Rebecca L. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Moussavi, Mahsa | |
| dc.contributor.author | Brucker, Ludovic | |
| dc.contributor.author | Picard, Ghislain | |
| dc.contributor.author | Shuman, Christopher A. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Stevens, Laura A. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-11-20T18:10:33Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2020-11-20T18:10:33Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2020-10-22 | |
| dc.description.abstract | In the 2019/2020 austral summer, the surface melt duration and extent on the northern George VI Ice Shelf (GVIIS) was exceptional compared to the 31 previous summers of dramatically lower melt. This finding is based on analysis of near-continuous 41-year satellite microwave radiometer (and scatterometer) data, which are sensitive to meltwater on the ice-shelf surface and in the near-surface snow. Using optical satellite imagery from Landsat 8 (since 2013) and Sentinel-2 (since 2017), record volumes of surface meltwater ponding are also observed on north GVIIS in 2019/2020, with 23 % of the surface area covered by 0.62 km3 of meltwater on January 19. These exceptional melt and surface ponding conditions in 2019/2020 were driven by sustained air temperatures ≥ 0 °C for anomalously long periods (55–90 hours) from late November onwards, likely driven by warmer northwesterly and northeasterly low-speed winds. Increased surface ponding on ice shelves may threaten their stability through increased potential for hydrofracture initiation; a risk that may increase due to firn air content depletion in response to near-surface melting. | en_US |
| dc.description.sponsorship | AFB received support from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) under award #1841607 to the University of Colorado Boulder, and from a CIRES Postdoctoral Visiting Fellowship. RTD was funded by the NASA ICESat2 Project Science office. R.L.D. was funded by a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Doctoral Training Partnership Studentship (CASE with the British Antarctic Survey, #NE/L002507/1). MM was funded by NSF GEO award #1643715 to the University of Colorado Boulder. LB and CAS were funded by the NASA Cryospheric Science Program. GP was funded by the European Space Agency project 4D Antarctica (ESRIN:4000128611/19/I-DT). LAS received support from the U.S. NSF under award #1841739 to Columbia University. The authors thank Steve Colwell at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) for help with the BAS Fossil Bluff AWS data acquisition and interpretation. Doug MacAyeal, Ian Willis, Ted Scambos and Julie Miller are all thanked for useful discussions, and Julie Miller is also thanked for producing the MODIS mosaic in the background of Fig. 1a | en_US |
| dc.description.uri | https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2020-309/ | en_US |
| dc.format.extent | 17 pages | en_US |
| dc.genre | journal articles | en_US |
| dc.identifier | doi:10.13016/m2bexc-c2i0 | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Banwell, A. F., Datta, R. T., Dell, R. L., Moussavi, M., Brucker, L., Picard, G., Shuman, C. A., and Stevens, L. A.: 32-year record-high surface melt in 2019/2020 on north George VI Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, The Cryosphere Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2020-309, 2020. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2020-309 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11603/20119 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Copernicus Publications | en_US |
| dc.relation.isAvailableAt | The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | UMBC Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | UMBC Faculty Collection | |
| dc.rights | This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author. | |
| dc.rights | Public Domain Mark 1.0 | * |
| dc.rights | This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law. | |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ | * |
| dc.title | The 32-year record-high surface melt in 2019/2020 on the northern George VI Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula | en_US |
| dc.type | Text | en_US |
| dcterms.title | 32-year record-high surface melt in 2019/2020 on north George VI Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula |