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Meteoroids of sub-milligram sizes burn up high in the Earth's atmosphere and cause streaks of plasma trails detectable by meteor radars. The altitude at which these trails, or meteors…
Antarctic sea ice is one of the largest biomes on Earth providing a critical habitat for ice algae. Measurements of primary production in Antarctic sea ice remain scarce and an observation-based estimate of primary production has not been revisited in over 30 years.
Components such as organic carbon (Corg), carbonate, opal or barite are valuable paleoceanographic proxies, enabling the reconstruction of past changes in carbon cycling under various climate regimes, particularly when 230Th-normalization is used to reconstruct particulate vertical rain rates.
Primary productivity by phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean can be limited by low iron concentrations. Iron limitation in the surface ocean around Antarctica may be alleviated by particle dissolution of dust from exposed rock, glacial flour, resuspended marine sediment, and sea ice. Ligands…
Sea ice can be interspersed vertically with both permeable and impermeable layers. These features can be smaller than a few centimetres but are important for understanding biogeochemical cycles in sea ice. Traditionally…
Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) is the densest water mass in the world and drives the lower limb of the global thermohaline circulation. AABW is formed in only four regions around Antarctica and Cape Darnley, East Antarctica, is the most recently discovered formation region. Here…
A holistic review is given of the Southern Ocean dynamic system, in the context of the crucial role it plays in the global climate and the profound changes it is experiencing. The review focuses on connections between different components of the Southern Ocean dynamic system…
Global chemistry–climate models (CCMs) play an important role in assessing the climate and air pollution implications of aerosols and chemically reactive gases.
Global, regional and local sea?level projections rely on complex process?based models of the climate?ocean?cryosphere system. While extrapolation of observational data has been examined on global and regional scales, this approach has not yet been used for the additional complexities of coastal sea?
Antarctic ice shelves typically comprise continental meteoric ice, in situ-accumulated meteoric ice, and marine ice accumulated at the shelf base. Using borehole optical televiewer logs from across Larsen C Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, we identify and report an intermediate ice unit…
Levoglucosan (LEV) and two of its isomers, mannosan (MAN) and galactosan (GAL), are commonly used as biomass burning tracers, however 1,6-anhydro-?-D-glucofuranose (AGF), another isomer derived from biomass burning, is rarely identified or quantified in existing literature.
During the transition from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the Holocene, the atmospheric N2O mole fraction increased by 80 nmol mol?1. Using ice core measurements of N2O isotopomer ratios, we show that this increase was driven by increases in both nitrification and denitrification…
The development of the Antarctic ozone hole in late winter and spring (September–November) is the most … noticeable phenomenon in the polar stratosphere. It has appeared every season since the early 1980s within the … stratospheric polar vortex…
Antarctic geothermal heat flow (GHF) affects the thermal regime of ice sheets and simulations of ice and subglacial meltwater discharge to the ocean, but remains poorly constrained.
The Environmental Effects Assessment Panel of the Montreal Protocol under the United Nations Environment Programme evaluates effects on the environment and human health that arise from changes in the stratospheric ozone layer and concomitant variations in ultraviolet (UV)…
The Mount Brown South ice core (MBS 69.111S 86.312E) is a new, high resolution ice core drilled in coastal East Antarctica. With mean annual accumulation estimated to be ~30 cm ice equivalent throughout the length of the core (~290 m)…
Societal adaptation to rising sea levels requires robust projections of the Antarctic Ice Sheet's retreat, particularly due to ocean-driven basal melting of its fringing ice shelves.
The grounding zone—where glaciers transition to floating ice shelves—critically influences ice sheet mass loss yet remains poorly observed. While tides and subglacial freshwater enhance basal melt, the role of sediment-laden subglacial water outflow on ice shelf–ocean dynamics is unexplored.
Ocean-driven basal melt can thin and weaken ice shelves, reducing buttressing and causing sea level rise. However, the processes driving melt in ice shelf cavities are challenging to observe. Here we report float observations spanning the ocean cavity beneath Shackleton Ice Shelf.
Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) is derived from dense water that sinks from the Antarctic continental shelf to the deep ocean. The sinking of AABW is balanced by a return flow of lighter water, and the resulting overturning circulation determines the density stratification of the deep ocean…
Mass loss of the Antarctic ice sheet is largest in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica, due to basal melting by warm modified Circumpolar Deep Water (mCDW).
The Mount Brown South (MBS) ice core in East Antarctica (69° S, 86° E) has produced records of sea salt concentration and snow accumulation for examining past climate. In a previous study, the sea salt concentration, but not snow accumulation, showed a significant…
The presence and nature of marine ice in ice shelves is important, yet difficult to determine. We present transient electromagnetic results spanning 10 km across a suture zone of Larsen C Ice Shelf (LCIS), Antarctica, supported by central borehole measurements.
Net sea-ice extent (SIE; the area enclosed by greater than 15% sea-ice concentration) and sea-ice area (SIA; the product of sea-ice extent and concentration) were well below average or at record-low levels throughout 2023 (Fig. 6.11a).