Climatic effect of Antarctic meltwater overwhelmed by concurrent Northern hemispheric melt

R. F Ivanovic; L. J. Gregoire; A. D. Wickert; A. Burke

doi:10.1029/2018GL077623

Climatic effect of Antarctic meltwater overwhelmed by concurrent Northern hemispheric melt

R. F Ivanovic, L. J. Gregoire, A. D. Wickert, A. Burke

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Records indicate that 14,500 years ago, sea level rose by 12‐22 m in under 340 years. However, the source of the sea level rise remains contentious, partly due to the competing climatic impact of different hemispheric contributions. Antarctic meltwater could indirectly strengthen the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), causing northern warming, whereas Northern Hemisphere ice‐sheet meltwater has the opposite effect. This story has recently become more intriguing, due to increasing evidence for sea level contributions from both hemispheres. Using a coupled climate model with freshwater forcing, we demonstrate that the climatic influence of southern‐sourced meltwater is overridden by northern sources even when the Antarctic flux is double the North American contribution. This is because the Southern Ocean is quickly re‐salinized by Antarctic Circumpolar water. These results imply that the pattern of surface climate changes caused by ice sheet melting cannot be used to fingerprint the hemispheric source of the meltwater.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	5681-5689
Number of pages	9
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	45
Issue number	11
Early online date	12 Jun 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL077623
Publication status	Published - 16 Jun 2018

Keywords

AMOC
MWP1a
Meltwater
Hosing
Stability
Ice sheets

UN SDGs

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Ivanovic_2018_GRL_Antarcticmeltwater_CC
© 2018 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Climatic effect of Antarctic meltwater overwhelmed by concurrent Northern hemispheric melt
Ivanovic, R. F. (Creator), Gregoire, L. J. (Creator), Wickert, A. D. (Creator) & Burke, A. (Creator), University of Leeds, 5 Jul 2018
DOI: 10.5518/395
Dataset

Cite this

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title = "Climatic effect of Antarctic meltwater overwhelmed by concurrent Northern hemispheric melt",

abstract = "Records indicate that 14,500 years ago, sea level rose by 12‐22 m in under 340 years. However, the source of the sea level rise remains contentious, partly due to the competing climatic impact of different hemispheric contributions. Antarctic meltwater could indirectly strengthen the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), causing northern warming, whereas Northern Hemisphere ice‐sheet meltwater has the opposite effect. This story has recently become more intriguing, due to increasing evidence for sea level contributions from both hemispheres. Using a coupled climate model with freshwater forcing, we demonstrate that the climatic influence of southern‐sourced meltwater is overridden by northern sources even when the Antarctic flux is double the North American contribution. This is because the Southern Ocean is quickly re‐salinized by Antarctic Circumpolar water. These results imply that the pattern of surface climate changes caused by ice sheet melting cannot be used to fingerprint the hemispheric source of the meltwater. ",

keywords = "AMOC, MWP1a, Meltwater, Hosing, Stability, Ice sheets",

author = "Ivanovic, {R. F} and Gregoire, {L. J.} and Wickert, {A. D.} and A. Burke",

note = "R.F.I. is funded by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant NE/K008536/1. Numerical climate model simulations made use of the N8 HPC Centre of Excellence (N8 consortium and EPSRC grant EP/K000225/1) and the University of Leeds Physical Climate Change Research Group high performance computing resources.",

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AU - Ivanovic, R. F

AU - Gregoire, L. J.

AU - Wickert, A. D.

AU - Burke, A.

N1 - R.F.I. is funded by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant NE/K008536/1. Numerical climate model simulations made use of the N8 HPC Centre of Excellence (N8 consortium and EPSRC grant EP/K000225/1) and the University of Leeds Physical Climate Change Research Group high performance computing resources.

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Y1 - 2018/6/16

N2 - Records indicate that 14,500 years ago, sea level rose by 12‐22 m in under 340 years. However, the source of the sea level rise remains contentious, partly due to the competing climatic impact of different hemispheric contributions. Antarctic meltwater could indirectly strengthen the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), causing northern warming, whereas Northern Hemisphere ice‐sheet meltwater has the opposite effect. This story has recently become more intriguing, due to increasing evidence for sea level contributions from both hemispheres. Using a coupled climate model with freshwater forcing, we demonstrate that the climatic influence of southern‐sourced meltwater is overridden by northern sources even when the Antarctic flux is double the North American contribution. This is because the Southern Ocean is quickly re‐salinized by Antarctic Circumpolar water. These results imply that the pattern of surface climate changes caused by ice sheet melting cannot be used to fingerprint the hemispheric source of the meltwater.

AB - Records indicate that 14,500 years ago, sea level rose by 12‐22 m in under 340 years. However, the source of the sea level rise remains contentious, partly due to the competing climatic impact of different hemispheric contributions. Antarctic meltwater could indirectly strengthen the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), causing northern warming, whereas Northern Hemisphere ice‐sheet meltwater has the opposite effect. This story has recently become more intriguing, due to increasing evidence for sea level contributions from both hemispheres. Using a coupled climate model with freshwater forcing, we demonstrate that the climatic influence of southern‐sourced meltwater is overridden by northern sources even when the Antarctic flux is double the North American contribution. This is because the Southern Ocean is quickly re‐salinized by Antarctic Circumpolar water. These results imply that the pattern of surface climate changes caused by ice sheet melting cannot be used to fingerprint the hemispheric source of the meltwater.

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KW - Hosing

KW - Stability

KW - Ice sheets

U2 - 10.1029/2018GL077623

DO - 10.1029/2018GL077623

M3 - Article

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VL - 45

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EP - 5689

JO - Geophysical Research Letters

JF - Geophysical Research Letters

IS - 11

ER -

Climatic effect of Antarctic meltwater overwhelmed by concurrent Northern hemispheric melt

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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Climatic effect of Antarctic meltwater overwhelmed by concurrent Northern hemispheric melt

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