Antarctic Climate

Vincennes Bay is a region of East Antarctica vulnerable to sub-ice shelf basal melting from warm ocean water intrusions. The sub-ice shelf bathymetry in this region is largely unknown, despite its importance for ocean dynamics within ice shelf cavities and associated sub-ice shelf basal melting.

Antarctic landfast sea ice is an integral component of coastal and nearshore ecosystems, providing bottom-ice habitats that harbour some of the most productive marine microalgal communities on Earth. Ice algal biomass is driven by the spatio-temporal dynamics of snow and sea-ice covers…

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…

The future response of the Antarctic Slope Current (ASC) to projected transient changes in winds, radiative forcing, and meltwater input is examined in a high-resolution ocean-sea ice model. Meltwater changes are found to dominate the almost -circumpolar strengthening of the ASC.

Newly formed sea ice can incorporate considerable amounts of organic matter including phytoplankton during its freezing and growth. This initial incorporation influences the standing stocks of ice algae, a fundamental component of high-latitude marine ecosystems.

Continent-continent collisions develop mature orogenic systems over tens of millions of years, creating a thermally weakened mid-crustal infrastructure layer (15–50 km deep) that flows laterally from the thickened mountain ranges or plateaus.

Around the margins of Antarctica, dense waters formed on the continental shelf are exported to oceanic depths. This overflow of dense waters to the abyss ventilates the ocean, and is vital to the global overturning circulation.

Sea-ice surface temperature from atmospheric reanalysis has been used as an indicator of ice melt and climate change. However, its performance in atmospheric reanalyses is not fully understood in Antarctica. Here, we quantified biases in six widely-used reanalyses using satellite observations…

Interleaving layers are commonly observed in the subsurface ocean near thermohaline fronts. They imply a lateral exchange of water mass properties and have been shown to influence both lateral and vertical mixing rates. We examine a set of in situ observations…

Standing meanders along the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) have been shown to be regions of elevated eddy variability, meridional heat transport, and vertical exchange. In this study, we investigate the influence of a standing meander south of Australia on air-sea heat fluxes…

The vertically integrated zonal momentum balance of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is dominated by wind stress at the surface and topographic form stress (TFS) at the bottom. It has been argued that wind stress is transferred from the surface to the bottom by transient baroclinic eddies…

The deep glacial trough and hinterland of the Denman Glacier (East Antarctica) makes the area around the Shackleton ice shelf sensitive to ice loss due to warmer deep water intruding onto the continental shelf in the near future. In addition…

When seawater freezes, sea ice forms. Though seemingly straightforward, the formation, growth, and decay of sea ice involve complexities. Sea ice, its extent, and its physical properties are of paramount importance to the climate system. This is in large part due to its vast coverage at the poles.

Antarctica's contribution to global sea-level rise is deeply uncertain, with subglacial water suspected to play a critical role, yet its impact remains unclear.

The Southern Ocean (south of 30°S) contributes significantly to global ocean carbon uptake through the solubility, physical and biological pumps. Many studies have estimated carbon export to the deep ocean, but very few have attempted a basin-scale perspective, or accounted for the sea-ice zone…

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…

Using high-precision ice core measurements of CO2, ?13C-CO2, CH4, and N2O, this study provides carbon isotope constraints on a sizeable, centennial-scale CO2 jump at the onset of Marine Isotope Stage 9 (MIS 9). The very end of the Heinrich stadial (HS) characterizing Termination IV (T-IV, ca.

Global climate models and reanalysis products have revealed large, persistent downwelling shortwave radiation biases over the Southern Ocean and coastal Antarctica, likely caused by the incapability of models to accurately simulate frequent low-level mixed-phase clouds in these regions.

Projections of Antarctic Ice Sheet mass loss and therefore global sea level rise are hugely uncertain, partly due to how mass loss of the ice sheet occurs at the grounding line. The Wilkes Subglacial Basin (WSB), a vast region of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet…

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga/Hunga-Ha'apai eruption on January 15, 2022 sent off a plume of ash material up to the stratosphere and triggered a meteotsunami and … barometric pressure pulse that rippled through the atmosphere and oceans all around the world.

Microplastic (MP; plastic particles < 5 mm) pollution is pervasive in the marine environment, including remote polar environments. This study provides the first pan-Antarctic survey of MP pollution in Southern Ocean sea ice by analyzing sea ice cores from several diverse Antarctic regions.

The last glacial termination was characterised by millennial-scale episodes of warming and cooling that appear offset between the hemispheres. It has been proposed that this bi-polar seesaw is the result of climate system feedbacks. A key debate, which remains unresolved…