Journal
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES
Volume 122, Issue 22, Pages 12062-12076Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2017JD026809
Keywords
Larsen Ice Shelf; Fohn winds; melt; Antarctic
Categories
Funding
- UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) [NE/G014124/1, NE/L006707/1, NE/L005409/1]
- Netherlands Polar Program (NPP) of the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research, Earth and Life Sciences section (NWO/ALW)
- Natural Environment Research Council [bas0100032, NE/G013578/1, NE/G014124/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- NERC [bas0100032, NE/L006707/1, NE/G014124/1, NE/G013578/1] Funding Source: UKRI
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We use model data from the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS), measurements from automatic weather stations and satellite observations to investigate the association between surface energy balance (SEB), surface melt, and the occurrence of fohn winds over Larsen C Ice Shelf (Antarctic Peninsula) over the period November 2010 to March 2011. Fohn conditions occurred for over 20% of the time during this period and are associated with increased air temperatures and decreased relative humidity (relative to nonfohn conditions) over the western part of the ice shelf. During fohn conditions, the downward turbulent flux of sensible heat and the downwelling shortwave radiation both increase. However, in AMPS, these warming tendencies are largely balanced by an increase in upward latent heat flux and a decrease in downwelling longwave radiation so the impact of fohn on the modeled net SEB is small. This balance is highly sensitive to the representation of surface energy fluxes in the model, and limited validation data suggest that AMPS may underestimate the sensitivity of SEB and melt to fohn. There is broad agreement on the spatial pattern of melt between the model and satellite observations but disagreement in the frequency with which melt occurs. Satellite observations indicate localized regions of persistent melt along the foot of the Antarctic Peninsula mountains which are not simulated by the model. Furthermore, melt is observed to persist in these regions during extended periods when fohn does not occur, suggesting that other factors may be important in controlling melt in these regions.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available