Antarctic shelf ocean warming and sea ice melt affected by projected El Niño changes
Wenju Cai, Fan Jia, Shujun Li, Ariaan Purich, Guojian Wang, Lixin Wu, Bolan Gan, Agus Santoso, Tao Geng, Benjamin Ng, Yun Yang, David Ferreira, Gerald A. Meehl, Michael J. McPhaden
Abstract
Abstract Antarctic shelf ocean warming affects melt of ice shelf/sheets and sea ice but projected changes vary vastly across climate models. A projected increase in El Niño variability has been found to slow future mid-latitude Southern Ocean warming but how this impacts the Antarctic shelf ocean is unknown. Here we show that a projected increase in El Niño variability accelerates Antarctic shelf ocean warming, hastening ice shelf/sheet melt but slowing sea ice reduction.
Topics & Concepts
Ice shelfOceanographySea iceAntarctic ice sheetAntarctic sea iceEffects of global warming on oceansClimatologyEnvironmental scienceIce sheetGeologyGlobal warmingContinental shelfCryosphereLatitudeClimate changeGeodesyCryospheric studies and observationsClimate variability and modelsGeology and Paleoclimatology Research