The Extraordinary March 2022 East Antarctica “Heat” Wave. Part II: Impacts on the Antarctic Ice Sheet

Journal Article · Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 UTC 2024 · Journal of Climate

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-23-0176.1 · OSTI ID:2280447

Wille, Jonathan D.  ^[1]; Alexander, Simon P. ^[2]; Amory, Charles ^[3]; Baiman, Rebecca ^[4]; Barthélemy, Léonard ^[5]; Bergstrom, Dana M. ^[6]; Berne, Alexis ^[7]; Binder, Hanin ^[8]; Blanchet, Juliette ^[3]; Bozkurt, Deniz ^[9]; Bracegirdle, Thomas J. ^[10]; Casado, Mathieu ^[11]; Choi, Taejin ^[12]; Clem, Kyle R. ^[13]; Codron, Francis ^[5]; Datta, Rajashree ^[14]; Battista, Stefano Di ^[15]; Favier, Vincent ^[3]; Francis, Diana ^[16]; Fraser, Alexander D. ^[17] ; Fourré, Elise ^[11]; Garreaud, René D. ^[18]; Genthon, Christophe ^[19]; Gorodetskaya, Irina V. ^[20]; González-Herrero, Sergi ^[21]; Heinrich, Victoria J. ^[22]; Hubert, Guillaume ^[23]; Joos, Hanna ^[8]; Kim, Seong-Joong ^[12]; King, John C. ^[10]; Kittel, Christoph ^[3]; Landais, Amaelle ^[11]; Lazzara, Matthew ^[24]; Leonard, Gregory H. ^[25]; Lieser, Jan L. ^[26]; Maclennan, Michelle ^[4]; Mikolajczyk, David ^[27]; Neff, Peter ^[28]; Ollivier, Inès ^[29]; Picard, Ghislain ^[3]; Pohl, Benjamin ^[30]; Ralph, F. Martin ^[31]; Rowe, Penny ^[32]; Schlosser, Elisabeth ^[33]; Shields, Christine A. ^[34]; Smith, Inga J. ^[35]; Sprenger, Michael ^[8]; Trusel, Luke ^[36]; Udy, Danielle ^[37]; Vance, Tessa ^[17]; Vignon, Étienne ^[19]; Walker, Catherine ^[38]; Wever, Nander ^[39]; Zou, Xun ^[31]

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1. a Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement, CNRS/UGA, Saint Martin d’Hères, France, b Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
2. c Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston, Tasmania, Australia, d Australian Antarctic Program Partnership, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
3. a Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement, CNRS/UGA, Saint Martin d’Hères, France
4. e Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
5. f Laboratoire d’Océanographie et du Climat, LOCEAN-IPSL, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, IRD, MNHN, Paris, France
6. c Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston, Tasmania, Australia, g Global Challenges Program, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, h Centre for Ecological Genomics and Wildlife Conservation, Department of Zoology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
7. i Environmental Remote Sensing Laboratory (LTE), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
8. b Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
9. j Department of Meteorology, University of Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile, k Center for Climate and Resilience Research, Santiago, Chile
10. l British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, United Kingdom
11. m Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, CNRS-CEA-UVSQ-IPSL, Gif sur Yvette, France
12. n Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, South Korea
13. o School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
14. c Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston, Tasmania, Australia
15. p Meteogiornale, Milan, Italy
16. q Environmental and Geophysical Sciences (ENGEOS) Lab, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
17. d Australian Antarctic Program Partnership, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
18. k Center for Climate and Resilience Research, Santiago, Chile, r Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
19. s LMD/IPSL, Sorbonne Université, ENS, PSL Research University, École Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, CNRS, Paris, France
20. t CIIMAR–Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research of the University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
21. u WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland, v Antarctic Group, Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (AEMET), Barcelona, Spain
22. w School of Psychological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
23. x The French Aerospace Lab, ONERA/DPHY, University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France
24. y Antarctic Meteorological Research and Data Center, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, z Department of Physical Sciences, School of Engineering, Science, and Mathematics, Madison Area Technical College, Madison, Wisconsin
25. aa National School of Surveying, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
26. bb Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
27. y Antarctic Meteorological Research and Data Center, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin
28. cc University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota
29. dd Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, m Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, CNRS-CEA-UVSQ-IPSL, Gif sur Yvette, France
30. ee Biogéosciences, CNRS/Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France
31. ff Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, California
32. gg NorthWest Research Associates, Seattle, Washington
33. hh Department of Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
34. ii Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
35. jj Department of Physics, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
36. kk Department of Geography, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania
37. d Australian Antarctic Program Partnership, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, bb Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, ll ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
38. mm Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
39. e Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, u WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland

Abstract Between 15 and 19 March 2022, East Antarctica experienced an exceptional heat wave with widespread 30°–40°C temperature anomalies across the ice sheet. In Part I, we assessed the meteorological drivers that generated an intense atmospheric river (AR) that caused these record-shattering temperature anomalies. Here, we continue our large collaborative study by analyzing the widespread and diverse impacts driven by the AR landfall. These impacts included widespread rain and surface melt that was recorded along coastal areas, but this was outweighed by widespread high snowfall accumulations resulting in a largely positive surface mass balance contribution to the East Antarctic region. An analysis of the surface energy budget indicated that widespread downward longwave radiation anomalies caused by large cloud-liquid water contents along with some scattered solar radiation produced intense surface warming. Isotope measurements of the moisture were highly elevated, likely imprinting a strong signal for past climate reconstructions. The AR event attenuated cosmic ray measurements at Concordia, something previously never observed. Last, an extratropical cyclone west of the AR landfall likely triggered the final collapse of the critically unstable Conger Ice Shelf while further reducing an already record low sea ice extent. Significance Statement Using our diverse collective expertise, we explored the impacts from the March 2022 heat wave and atmospheric river across East Antarctica. One key takeaway is that the Antarctic cryosphere is highly sensitive to meteorological extremes originating from the midlatitudes and subtropics. Despite the large positive temperature anomalies driven from strong downward longwave radiation, this event led to huge amounts of snowfall across the Antarctic interior desert. The isotopes in this snow of warm airmass origin will likely be detectable in future ice cores and potentially distort past climate reconstructions. Even measurements of space activity were affected. Also, the swells generated from this storm helped to trigger the final collapse of an already critically unstable Conger Ice Shelf while further degrading sea ice coverage.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0022070
• OSTI ID: 2280447
• Journal Information: Journal of Climate, Journal Name: Journal of Climate Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 37; ISSN 0894-8755
• Publisher: American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English