C53A-0760
Several firn core records suggest relatively stable accumulation rates during the past two centuries over the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica
Friday, 18 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Brooke Medley1, Sarah B Das2, Luke D Trusel2, Eric J. Steig3, Jan Lenaerts4, Howard Conway3, Joe McConnell5, Michiel van den Broeke6, Alison S Criscitiello7, David H Bromwich8, Julien P. Nicolas9 and Ian Joughin10, (1)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (2)Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole, MA, United States, (3)University of Washington Seattle Campus, Seattle, WA, United States, (4)Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands, (5)Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV, United States, (6)Utrecht University, Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, Utrecht, Netherlands, (7)University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada, (8)Byrd Polar & Climate Rsrch Ctr, Columbus, OH, United States, (9)Ohio State University Main Campus, Columbus, OH, United States, (10)Applied Physics Lab, University of Washington, Polar Science Center, Seattle, WA, United States
Abstract:
Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers are two of the largest Antarctic contributors to sea-level rise and several studies suggest their contribution will continue over the coming centuries. At the same time, West Antarctica is currently one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth. Under future, warmer conditions, it is believed that total snowfall and accumulation will increase over these already high accumulation areas, which could act to mitigate some of the dynamic ice losses. Using a variety of cores collected between 2000 and 2010, we investigate the variations and trends in snow accumulation over the past two centuries from the area in and around the Pine Island and Thwaites catchments. Furthermore, we combine the firn core records with atmospheric reanalysis data to assess any controls on recent accumulation (post-1979) to understand potential future changes. We additionally use radar-derived accumulation rates from the past century to support interpretation of the firn core records and to help us understand the spatial representativeness of the records. Because the records from all three data sources (firn cores, reanalysis, and radar data) are in agreement, we find that the recent accumulation history of Pine Island and Thwaites is well-constrained at the catchment scale.
