Abstract
AbstractThe limited number of surface mass balance (SMB) observations in the Antarctic inland hampers estimates of ice‐sheet contribution to global sea level and locations with million‐year‐old ice. We present finely resolved SMB over the past three centuries in a low‐accumulation region with significant depth hoar formation on Dome Fuji derived from ∼1,100 km of microwave radar stratigraphy dated with a firn core. The regional‐mean SMB over the past 264 years is estimated to ∼22.5 ± 3.3 kg m−2 a−1, but with large local variability of up to 30%. We found that local SMB is negatively correlated with surface slope at scales of a few hundred meters, resulting in anomalous zones of low SMB which represent as much as 8–10% of the total SMB on the inland plateau if the SMB‐slope relationship is more widely valid. This impact should be investigated further to improve estimates of Antarctic mass balance and sea‐level contribution.
Highlights
The surface mass balance (SMB) of the Antarctic ice sheet has a strong gradient from the coast to inland, and is determined by complicated interactions between the atmosphere and the landscape
SMB is highest in the dome summit area within 20 km from Dome Fuji Station, and gradually decreases downslope toward NDFN (Figure 3)
The inland East Antarctic plateau has very low SMB and strong vertical vapor transportation near the surface resulting in depth hoar formation (Gallet et al, 2014; Scambos et al, 2012) which can be a challenge for SMB applications of microwave radar
Summary
The surface mass balance (SMB) of the Antarctic ice sheet has a strong gradient from the coast to inland, and is determined by complicated interactions between the atmosphere and the landscape. Regional climate models, and global circulation models typically resolve SMB distribution with a spatial resolution of tens of kilometers, which is not adequate to detect local features in SMB even in inland Antarctica where the surface topography is relatively smooth (e.g., Das et al, 2013). Microwave radar surveys of shallow firn stratigraphy and associated firn core analysis are viable means to address how these local features impact SMB at different spatial scales. Areas around Dome Fuji, Dome C, and a few other locations in East Antarctica have been suggested as promising sites to retrieve records of ”Oldest Ice,” which covers the mid-Pleistocene climate transition (Fischer et al, 2013), while the currently continuous ice core records are limited to the last 800 ka at Dome C (Jouzel et al, 2007). The likelihood of frozen bed and very old ice near the base generally increases
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