| 1. |
- Vega, Carmen P., et al.
(författare)
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Surface mass balance and water stable isotopes derived from firn cores on three ice rises, Fimbul Ice Shelf, Antarctica
- 2016
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Ingår i: The Cryosphere Discussions. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1994-0432 .- 1994-0440 .- 1994-0424. ; 10:6, s. 2763-2777
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Three shallow firn cores were retrieved in the austral summers of 2011/12 and 2013/14 on the ice rises Kupol Ciolkovskogo (KC), Kupol Moskovskij (KM), and Blaskimen Island (BI), all part of Fimbul Ice Shelf (FIS) in western Dronning Maud Land (DML), Antarctica. The cores were dated back to 1958 (KC), 1995 (KM), and 1996 (BI) by annual layer counting using high-resolution oxygen isotope (delta O-18) data, and by identifying volcanic horizons using non-sea-salt sulfate (nssSO(4)(2-)) data. The water stable isotope records show that the atmospheric signature of the annual snow accumulation cycle is well preserved in the firn column, especially at KM and BI. We are able to determine the annual surface mass balance (SMB), as well as the mean SMB values between identified volcanic horizons. Average SMB at the KM and BI sites (0.68 and 0.70 mw.e.yr(-1)) was higher than at the KC site (0.24 mw.e.yr(-1)), and there was greater temporal variability as well. Trends in the SMB and delta O-18 records from the KC core over the period of 1958-2012 agree well with other previously investigated cores in the area, thus the KC site could be considered the most representative of the climate of the region. Cores from KM and BI appear to be more affected by local meteorological conditions and surface topography. Our results suggest that the ice rises are suitable sites for the retrieval of longer firn and ice cores, but that BI has the best preserved seasonal cycles of the three records and is thus the most optimal site for high-resolution studies of temporal variability of the climate signal. Deuterium ex-cess data suggest a possible effect of seasonal moisture transport changes on the annual isotopic signal. In agreement with previous studies, large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns most likely provide the dominant influence on water stable isotope ratios preserved at the core sites.
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| 2. |
- Schäfer, Martina, et al.
(författare)
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Assessment of heat sources on the control of fast flow of Vestfonna Ice Cap, Svalbard
- 2013
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Ingår i: The Cryosphere Discussions. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1994-0432 .- 1994-0440. ; 7, s. 5097-5145
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Abstract. The dynamic regime of Svalbard's Nordaustlandet ice caps is dominated by fast flowing outlet glaciers, making assessment of their response to climate change challenging. A key element of the challenge lies in the fact that the motion of fast outlet glaciers occurs largely through basal sliding, and is governed by physical processes at the glacier bed, processes that are difficult both to observe and to simulate. Up to now, most of the sliding laws used in ice flow models were based on uniform parameters with a condition on temperature to identify regions of basal sliding. However these models are usually not able to reproduce observed velocities with sufficient accuracy. With the development of inverse methods, it is now common to infer a spatially varying field of sliding parameters from surface ice-velocity observations. These parameter distributions usually reflect a high spatial variability and represent valuable information to understand and test various hypotheses on physical processes involved in sliding. However, in these models, basal sliding is uncoupled from the thermal regime of basal ice and the evolution of the sliding parameters in prognostic simulations remains problematic. Here we explore the role of different heat sources (friction heating, strain heating and latent heat through percolation of melt water) on the development of sliding and fast flow through thermomechanical coupling on Nordaustlandet outlet glaciers. We focus on Vestfonna with a special emphasis on Franklinbreen, a fast flowing outlet glacier which has been observed to accelerate between 1995 and 2008 and possibly already prior to 1995. We try to reconcile the impacts of temperature and heat sources on basal friction coefficients inferred from observed surface velocities during these two periods. Our simulations reproduce a temperature profile from borehole measurements, allowing an interpretation of the vertical temperature structure in terms of temporal evolution of climate. We identify firn heating as a crucial heat source to explain Vestfonna's temperature distribution, especially in the thick areas in the center. However, friction heating is the dominant heat source at the bed of fast flowing outlet glaciers. Our findings do not support a purely temperature dependent sliding law for Vestfonna, implying that hydrology and/or sediment physics need to be represented in order to simulate fast flowing outlet glaciers.
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| 3. |
- Zhao, L, et al.
(författare)
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Numerical simulations of Gurenhekou Glacier on the Tibetan Plateau using a full-Stokes ice dynamical model
- 2013
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Ingår i: The Cryosphere Discussions. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1994-0432 .- 1994-0440. ; 7, s. 145-173
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Abstract. We investigate the impact of climate change on a small Tibetan glacier that is representative of the tens of thousands of mountain glaciers in the region. We apply a three-dimensional, thermo-mechanically coupled full-Stokes model to Gurenhekou Glacier located in the southern Tibetan Plateau. The steep and rugged geometry requires use of such a flow model to simulate the dynamical evolution of the glacier. We parameterize the temperature and mass balance using nearby automatic weather stations and an energy balance model for another glacier in the same mountain range. Summer air temperature increased at 0.02 K a−1 over the past 50 yr, and the glacier has retreated at an average rate of 8.3 m a−1. Prognostic simulations suggest an accelerated retreating rate up to 14 m a−1 for the next 50 yr under continued steady warming, which is consistent with observed increased retreat in the last decade. However, regional climate models suggest a marked increase in warming rate over Tibet during the 21st century, and this rate causes about a 1% per year loss of glaciated area and glacier volume. These changes imply that this small glacier will probably disappear in a century. Although Tibetan glaciers are not particularly sensitive to climate warming, the rather high warming rates predicted by regional climate models combined with the small sizes of most Tibetan glaciers suggest that significant numbers of glaciers will be lost in the region during the 21st century.
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| 4. |
- Zwinger, T, et al.
(författare)
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Influence of anisotropy on velocity and age distribution at Scharffenbergbotnen blue ice area
- 2013
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Ingår i: The Cryosphere Discussions. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1994-0432 .- 1994-0440. ; 7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Abstract. We use a full-Stokes thermo-mechanically coupled ice-flow model to study the dynamics of the glacier inside Scharffenbergbotnen valley, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. The domain encompasses a high accumulation rate region and, downstream a sublimation-dominated bare ice ablation area. The ablation ice area is notable for having old ice at its surface since the vertical velocity is upwards, and horizontal velocities are almost stagnant there. We compare the model simulation with field observations of velocities and the age distribution of the surface ice. A satisfactory match with simulations using an isotropic flow law was not found because of too high horizontal velocities and too slow vertical ones. However, the existence of a pronounced ice fabric may explain the present day surface velocity distribution in the inner Scharffenbergbotnen blue ice area. Near absence of data on the temporal evolution of Scharffenbergbotnen since the Late Glacial Maximum necessitates exploration of the impact of anisotropy using prescribed ice fabrics: isotropic, single maximum, and linear variation with depth, in both two-dimensional and three dimensional flow models. The realistic velocity field simulated with a non-collinear orthotropic flow law, however produced surface ages in significant disagreement with the few reliable age measurements and suggests that the age field is not in a steady state and that the present distribution is a result of a flow reorganization at about 15 000 yr BP. In order to fully understand the surface age distribution a transient simulation starting from the Late Glacial Maximum including the correct initial conditions for geometry, age, fabric and temperature distribution would be needed. It is the first time that the importance of anisotropy has been demonstrated in the ice dynamics of a blue ice area. This is useful to understand ice flow in order to better interpret archives of ancient ice for paleoclimate research.
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| 5. |
- Abbasi, Rasha, et al.
(författare)
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In situ estimation of ice crystal properties at the South Pole using LED calibration data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory
- 2024
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Ingår i: The Cryosphere. - : Copernicus Publications. - 1994-0416 .- 1994-0424. ; 18:1, s. 75-102
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The IceCube Neutrino Observatory instruments about 1 km 3 of deep, glacial ice at the geographic South Pole. It uses 5160 photomultipliers to detect Cherenkov light emitted by charged relativistic particles. An unexpected light propagation effect observed by the experiment is an anisotropic attenuation, which is aligned with the local flow direction of the ice. We examine birefringent light propagation through the polycrystalline ice microstructure as a possible explanation for this effect. The predictions of a first-principles model developed for this purpose, in particular curved light trajectories resulting from asymmetric diffusion, provide a qualitatively good match to the main features of the data. This in turn allows us to deduce ice crystal properties. Since the wavelength of the detected light is short compared to the crystal size, these crystal properties include not only the crystal orientation fabric, but also the average crystal size and shape, as a function of depth. By adding small empirical corrections to this first-principles model, a quantitatively accurate description of the optical properties of the IceCube glacial ice is obtained. In this paper, we present the experimental signature of ice optical anisotropy observed in IceCube light-emitting diode (LED) calibration data, the theory and parameterization of the birefringence effect, the fitting procedures of these parameterizations to experimental data, and the inferred crystal properties.
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| 6. |
- Andresen, Christian G., et al.
(författare)
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Soil moisture and hydrology projections of the permafrost region-a model intercomparison
- 2020
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Ingår i: Cryosphere. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1994-0416. ; 14:2, s. 445-459
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study investigates and compares soil moisture and hydrology projections of broadly used land models with permafrost processes and highlights the causes and impacts of permafrost zone soil moisture projections. Climate models project warmer temperatures and increases in precipitation (P) which will intensify evapotranspiration (ET) and runoff in land models. However, this study shows that most models project a long-term drying of the surface soil (0-20 cm) for the permafrost region despite increases in the net air-surface water flux (P-ET). Drying is generally explained by infiltration of moisture to deeper soil layers as the active layer deepens or permafrost thaws completely. Although most models agree on drying, the projections vary strongly in magnitude and spatial pattern. Land models tend to agree with decadal runoff trends but underestimate runoff volume when compared to gauge data across the major Arctic river basins, potentially indicating model structural limitations. Coordinated efforts to address the ongoing challenges presented in this study will help reduce uncertainty in our capability to predict the future Arctic hydrological state and associated land-atmosphere biogeochemical processes across spatial and temporal scales.
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| 7. |
- Applegate, Patrick J., et al.
(författare)
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An assessment of key model parametric uncertainties in projections of Greenland ice sheet behavior
- 2012
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Ingår i: The Cryosphere. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1994-0416 .- 1994-0424. ; 6:3, s. 589-606
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Lack of knowledge about the values of ice sheet model input parameters introduces substantial uncertainty into projections of Greenland Ice Sheet contributions to future sea level rise. Computer models of ice sheet behavior provide one of several means of estimating future sea level rise due to mass loss from ice sheets. Such models have many input parameters whose values are not well known. Recent studies have investigated the effects of these parameters on model output, but the range of potential future sea level increases due to model parametric uncertainty has not been characterized. Here, we demonstrate that this range is large, using a 100-member perturbed-physics ensemble with the SICOPOLIS ice sheet model. Each model run is spun up over 125 000 yr using geological forcings and subsequently driven into the future using an asymptotically increasing air temperature anomaly curve. All modeled ice sheets lose mass after 2005 AD. Parameters controlling surface melt dominate the model response to temperature change. After culling the ensemble to include only members that give reasonable ice volumes in 2005 AD, the range of projected sea level rise values in 2100 AD is similar to 40 % or more of the median. Data on past ice sheet behavior can help reduce this uncertainty, but none of our ensemble members produces a reasonable ice volume change during the mid-Holocene, relative to the present. This problem suggests that the model's exponential relation between temperature and precipitation does not hold during the Holocene, or that the central-Greenland temperature forcing curve used to drive the model is not representative of conditions around the ice margin at this time (among other possibilities). Our simulations also lack certain observed physical processes that may tend to enhance the real ice sheet's response. Regardless, this work has implications for other studies that use ice sheet models to project or hindcast the behavior of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
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| 8. |
- Bartels-Rausch, T., et al.
(författare)
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Interfacial supercooling and the precipitation of hydrohalite in frozen NaCl solutions as seen by X-ray absorption spectroscopy
- 2021
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Ingår i: Cryosphere. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1994-0416. ; 15:4, s. 2001-2020
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Laboratory experiments are presented on the phase change at the surface of sodium chloride-water mixtures at temperatures between 259 and 241 K. Chloride is a ubiquitous component of polar coastal surface snow. The chloride embedded in snow is involved in reactions that modify the chemical composition of snow as well as ultimately impact the budget of trace gases and the oxidative capacity of the overlying atmosphere. Multiphase reactions at the snow-air interface have been of particular interest in atmospheric science. Undoubtedly, chemical reactions proceed faster in liquids than in solids; but it is currently unclear when such phase changes occur at the interface of snow with air. In the experiments reported here, a high selectivity to the upper few nanometres of the frozen solution-air interface is achieved by using electron yield near-edge X-ray absorption fine-structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy. We find that sodium chloride at the interface of frozen solutions, which mimic sea-salt deposits in snow, remains as supercooled liquid down to 241 K. At this temperature, hydrohalite exclusively precipitates and anhydrous sodium chloride is not detected. In this work, we present the first NEXAFS spectrum of hydrohalite. The hydrohalite is found to be stable while increasing the temperature towards the eutectic temperature of 252 K. Taken together, this study reveals no differences in the phase changes of sodium chloride at the interface as compared to the bulk. That sodium chloride remains liquid at the interface upon cooling down to 241 K, which spans the most common temperature range in Arctic marine environments, has consequences for interfacial chemistry involving chlorine as well as for any other reactant for which the sodium chloride provides a liquid reservoir at the interface of environmental snow. Implications for the role of surface snow in atmospheric chemistry are discussed. © 2021 BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
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| 9. |
- Beer, Christian, et al.
(författare)
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Effects of short-term variability of meteorological variables on soil temperature in permafrost regions
- 2018
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Ingår i: The Cryosphere. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1994-0416 .- 1994-0424. ; 12:2, s. 741-757
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Effects of the short-term temporal variability of meteorological variables on soil temperature in northern high-latitude regions have been investigated. For this, a process-oriented land surface model has been driven using an artificially manipulated climate dataset. Short-term climate variability mainly impacts snow depth, and the thermal diffusivity of lichens and bryophytes. These impacts of climate variability on insulating surface layers together substantially alter the heat exchange between atmosphere and soil. As a result, soil temperature is 0.1 to 0.8 degrees C higher when climate variability is reduced. Earth system models project warming of the Arctic region but also increasing variability of meteorological variables and more often extreme meteorological events. Therefore, our results show that projected future increases in permafrost temperature and active-layer thickness in response to climate change will be lower (i) when taking into account future changes in short-term variability of meteorological variables and (ii) when representing dynamic snow and lichen and bryophyte functions in land surface models.
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| 10. |
- Chang, Kuang-Yu, et al.
(författare)
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Large carbon cycle sensitivities to climate across a permafrost thaw gradient in subarctic Sweden
- 2019
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Ingår i: The Cryosphere. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1994-0416 .- 1994-0424. ; 13:2, s. 647-663
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Permafrost peatlands store large amounts of carbon potentially vulnerable to decomposition. However, the fate of that carbon in a changing climate remains uncertain in models due to complex interactions among hydrological, biogeochemical, microbial, and plant processes. In this study, we estimated effects of climate forcing biases present in global climate reanalysis products on carbon cycle predictions at a thawing permafrost peatland in subarctic Sweden. The analysis was conducted with a comprehensive biogeochemical model (ecosys) across a permafrost thaw gradient encompassing intact permafrost palsa with an ice core and a shallow active layer, partly thawed bog with a deeper active layer and a variable water table, and fen with a water table close to the surface, each with distinct vegetation and microbiota. Using in situ observations to correct local cold and wet biases found in the Global Soil Wetness Project Phase 3 (GSWP3) climate reanalysis forcing, we demonstrate good model performance by comparing predicted and observed carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) exchanges, thaw depth, and water table depth. The simulations driven by the bias-corrected climate suggest that the three peatland types currently accumulate carbon from the atmosphere, although the bog and fen sites can have annual positive radiative forcing impacts due to their higher CH4 emissions. Our simulations indicate that projected precipitation increases could accelerate CH4 emissions from the palsa area, even without further degradation of palsa permafrost. The GSWP3 cold and wet biases for this site significantly alter simulation results and lead to erroneous active layer depth (ALD) and carbon budget estimates. Biases in simulated CO2 and CH4 exchanges from biased climate forcing are as large as those among the thaw stages themselves at a landscape scale across the examined permafrost thaw gradient. Future studies should thus not only focus on changes in carbon budget associated with morphological changes in thawing permafrost, but also recognize the effects of climate forcing uncertainty on carbon cycling.
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