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Intrinsic processes drive variability in basal melting of the Totten Glacier Ice Shelf
Citation
Gwyther, DE and O'Kane, TJ and Galton-Fenzi, BK and Monselesan, DP and Greenbaum, JS, Intrinsic processes drive variability in basal melting of the Totten Glacier Ice Shelf, Nature Communications, 9 Article 3141. ISSN 2041-1723 (2018) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2018 the authors. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
DOI: doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05618-2
Abstract
Over the period 2003–2008, the Totten Ice Shelf (TIS) was shown to be rapidly thinning, likely due to basal melting. However, a recent study using a longer time series found high interannual variability present in TIS surface elevation without any apparent trend. Here we show that low-frequency intrinsic ocean variability potentially accounts for a large fraction of the variability in the basal melting of TIS. Specifically, numerical ocean model simulations show that up to 44% of the modelled variability in basal melting in the 1–5 year timescale (and up to 21% in the 5–10 year timescale) is intrinsic, with a similar response to the full climate forcing. We identify the important role of intrinsic ocean variability in setting the observed interannual variation in TIS surface thickness and velocity. Our results further demonstrate the need to account for intrinsic ocean processes in the detection and attribution of change.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Antarctica, Totten Glacier, ice sheet, intrinsic variability |
| Research Division: | Earth Sciences |
| Research Group: | Oceanography |
| Research Field: | Physical Oceanography |
| Objective Division: | Environment |
| Objective Group: | Other Environment |
| Objective Field: | Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Oceanography |
| Author: | Gwyther, DE (Dr David Gwyther) |
| Author: | Galton-Fenzi, BK (Dr Ben Galton-Fenzi) |
| ID Code: | 127714 |
| Year Published: | 2018 |
| Deposited By: | Oceans and Cryosphere |
| Deposited On: | 2018-08-10 |
| Last Modified: | 2018-09-12 |
| Downloads: | 2 View Download Statistics |
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