They are born where it is warm, but they come to Antarctica. They produce heavy snowfall, yet they also cause melt of sea ice and coastal ice sheet areas, as well as ice shelf destabilization.
It’s about Antarctic atmospheric rivers (Ars) are a form of extreme weather that transport heat and moisture from the Southern Hemisphere subtropics and/or mid-latitudes to the Antarctic continent, producing heavy snowfall and extreme warming.
A new article about atmospheric rivers in Antarctica coauthored by NASC meteorologists Anastasia Chygareva and Svitlana Krakovska, was published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature. Thus, Ukrainian polar researchers have once again proven that they are making a significant contribution to world science, even in the conditions of a full-scale war.
The article analyzes all recorded cases of Antarctic Ars but they are rare events (~3 days per year per location)
As it turned out, Antarctic ARs have been responsible for 50–70% of extreme snowfall events in East Antarctica since the 1980s. However, they can also trigger extensive surface melting events, such as the final ice shelf collapse of Larsen A in 1995 and Larsen B in 2002.
In February 2022, the atmospheric river brought an extreme warm event to Vernadsky station area with a temperature record of + 12.7 ° C. This contributed to the alarming series of extreme warm events over this region showing accelerated melting of glaciers throughout the Antarctic Peninsula.
This case was analyzed in detail in 2023 in another Nature article, also with the participation of Anastasia Chygareva and Svitlana Krakovska, entitled “Record-high Antarctic Peninsula temperatures and surface melt in February 2022: a compound event with an intense atmospheric river”.
Why studying atmospheric rivers is important?
Scientists predict that their numbers will increase in the future as human-induced warming increases the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere. It is therefore important to understand how this will affect the Antarctic ice sheet and sea-level rise.
Congratulations to our scientists on yet another achievement!
Link to the article is in the first comment.
Photo: Vitalii Kaminskyi