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Recent decades of climate and cryospheric change on the Antarctic Peninsula David G. Vaughan British Antarctic Survey.

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Presentation on theme: "Recent decades of climate and cryospheric change on the Antarctic Peninsula David G. Vaughan British Antarctic Survey."— Presentation transcript:

1 Recent decades of climate and cryospheric change on the Antarctic Peninsula David G. Vaughan British Antarctic Survey

2 Source: Vaughan et al. Climatic Change, 2002 Climate Warming - Antarctica

3 Antarctic Peninsula melt - Mean annual air temp

4 Part 1 - More melt… Vaughan, D.G., 2006: Recent trends in melting conditions on the Antarctic Peninsula and their implications for ice-sheet mass balance. Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research, 38(1), pp. 147-152.

5 Faraday/Vernadsky mean annual temperature Source: BAS

6 Faraday/Vernadsky – seasonal trends Source: BAS

7 Fossil Bluff 1996/97 Source: DGV Fossil Bluff 1985/86 Antarctic Peninsula

8 Source: Andy Smith …quantitative – Rothera ramp

9 Antarctica Peninsula - orientation

10 Annual PDDs

11 Antarctic Peninsula melt - Station trends

12 Parameterisation of ann. temp vs. PDDs Figure 3. Correlation of mean annual air temperature to positive degree-days for all Antarctic Peninsula station data. East coast sites are represented by open circles and have a best fit regression line (solid) of, Φ = 1089 e (0.261 T / ˚C) (r 2 = 0.84). West coast sites are represented by black triangles and have a best-fit regression line (dashed) of, Φ = 358 e (0.251 T / ˚C) (r 2 = 0.79).

13 Melt-day distribution Figure 4. Distribution of annual positive degree-days calculated for a. 1950 (i.e. 2000 – 2.5˚C), b. 2000 and c. 2050 (i.e. 2000 – 2.5˚C). 2000 1950 2050

14 Antarctic Peninsula melt - Mass balance and runoff

15 Conclusions Long-term meteorological station data show increased duration of melt conditions across the Antarctic Peninsula over the past 50 years Parameterization of the number of PDDs as a function of mean annual temperature allows mapping of change Increasing surface ablation was estimated and shown to be likely to have doubled between 1950 and 2000, and given continued summer warming could double or treble by 2050. Runoff was calculated. At present it is (0.008 - 0.055) mm a -1 of sea level rise with the likelihood that with continued warming it will perhaps treble within 50 years. Increasing uncertainty

16 Part 2 - Shortening glaciers… Cook, A., A.J. Fox, D.G. Vaughan, and J.G. Ferrigno, 2005: Retreating glacier-fronts on the Antarctic Peninsula over the last 50 years. Science, 22, pp. 541-544.

17

18 Sheldon Glacier 195719691998 19862001

19 Analysis of glacier-front changes Extract from table showing mean change per year observed in 5-year intervals 1970- 1974 1975- 1979 1980- 1984 1985- 1989 1990- 1994 1995- 1999

20 Change in glacier length

21 Complete population

22 Latitude Sectors

23 Part 3 - Faster glaciers… H. Pritchard and D.G. Vaughan, in prep.

24 Tracking features in radar (SAR) images SAR1SAR2 measurement = (glacier flow) & (orbit offset) random error systematic error +35 days

25 5 1 range azimuth Range direction Tracking error: the case for azimuth-direction data 1)2) Azimuth direction

26 Tracking features in radar (SAR) images 0 md -1 4 0 15 30 150 scenes 70 000 km 2 337 glaciers 9 summers

27 Change in flow speed 1993 to 2003 Change in flow speed % that accelerated +7.8 %60% +14.2 %65% +14.4 %65% +12.7 %67% +13.4 % (± 0.5 to 0.7%) 75% (by > 5%)

28 Retreat rate 68°S 64°S Cook et al. (2005) +8% +14% +13% 10 % 0

29 Conclusions Significant, widespread speed-up Appears driven by retreat Response to strong regional warming

30 Conclusions Antarctic Peninsula contribution to sea level: AP runoff:up to 0.06 mm /yr Shelf collapse (Rignot et al. 2004): 0.07 mm /yr AP flow imbalance (12%, 1993-2003): at least 0.06 mm /yr Total: 0.19 mm /yr Alaska melt (Arendt et al. 2002): 0.14 mm/yr

31 Conclusions


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