| Title | Elevation changes in Antarctica mainly determined by accumulation variability |
| Author | Helsen, M.M.; van den Broeke, M.R.; van de Wal, R.S.W.; van de Berg, W.J.; van Meijgaard, E.; Davis, C.H.; Li, Y.; Goodwin, I. |
| Author Affil | Helsen, M.M., Utrecht University, Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, Utrecht, Netherlands. Other: Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, Netherlands; University of Missouri; University of Newcastle, Australia |
| Source | Science, 320(5883), p.1626-1629, . Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, DC, United States. ISSN: 0036- 8075 |
| Publication Date | Jun. 20, 2008 |
| Notes | In English. 26 refs. GeoRef Acc. No: 287172. CRREL Acc. No: 63000092 |
| Index Terms | climate; firn; glacial geology; ice sheets; ice shelves; temperature; temperature variations; thickness; variations; Antarctica- -Antarctic ice sheet; Antarctic ice sheet; Antarctica; elevation; ice cores; mass |
| Abstract | Antarctic Ice Sheet elevation changes, which are used to estimate changes in the mass of the interior regions, are caused by variations in the depth of the firn layer. We quantified the effects of temperature and accumulation variability on firn layer thickness by simulating the 1980-2004 Antarctic firn depth variability. For most of Antarctica, the magnitudes of firn depth changes were comparable to those of observed ice sheet elevation changes. The current satellite observational period (~15 years) is too short to neglect these fluctuations in firn depth when computing recent ice sheet mass changes. The amount of surface lowering in the Amundsen Sea Embayment revealed by satellite radar altimetry (1995-2003) was increased by including firn depth fluctuations, while a large area of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet slowly grew as a result of increased accumulation. |
| URL | http://hdl.handle.net/10.1126/science.1153894 |
| Publication Type | journal article |
| Record ID | 84656 |