Nature Communications (Jun 2017)

January 2016 extensive summer melt in West Antarctica favoured by strong El Niño

  • Julien P. Nicolas,
  • Andrew M. Vogelmann,
  • Ryan C. Scott,
  • Aaron B. Wilson,
  • Maria P. Cadeddu,
  • David H. Bromwich,
  • Johannes Verlinde,
  • Dan Lubin,
  • Lynn M. Russell,
  • Colin Jenkinson,
  • Heath H. Powers,
  • Maciej Ryczek,
  • Gregory Stone,
  • Jonathan D. Wille

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15799
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Sporadic surface melt over the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is not fully understood. Here, the authors report on an extensive melting episode in the Ross Ice Shelf area in 2016 and use comprehensivein situobservations and model simulations to highlight the role of the strong El Niño event.