Reply [to “Comment on ‘The distribution of nitrate content in the surface snow of the Antarctic Ice Sheet along the route of the 1990 International Trans-Antarctica Expedition’ by Qin Dahe, Edward J. Zeller, and Gisela A. M. Dreschhoff”]

1993 ◽  
Vol 98 (A4) ◽  
pp. 6185-6186
Author(s):  
Qin Dahe ◽  
Edward J. Zeller ◽  
Gisela A. M. Dreschhoff
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Nitrate Content ◽  
Antarctic Ice Sheet ◽  
Surface Snow ◽  
The Antarctic

scholarly journals Snow surface height variations on the Antarctic ice sheet in Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica: 1 year of data from an automatic weather station

2004 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 181-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qin Dahe ◽  
Xiao Cunde ◽  
Ian Allison ◽  
Bian Lingen ◽  
Rod Stephenson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Cloud Amount ◽  
Snow Accumulation ◽  
Strong Wind ◽  
Weather Station ◽  
Automatic Weather Station ◽  
Antarctic Ice Sheet ◽  
Total Cloud Amount ◽  
Surface Snow ◽  
The Antarctic

AbstractThe net surface snow accumulation on the Antarctic ice sheet is determined by a combination of precipitation, sublimation and wind redistribution. We present a 1 year record of hourly snow-height measurements that shows its seasonal variability. The measurements were made with an ultrasonic sensor mounted on an automatic weather station (AWS) installed at LGB69, Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica (70.835˚S, 77.075˚E; 1850 ma.s.l.). The average accumulation at this site is approximately 0.70 m snow a–1. Throughout the winter, between April and September, there was little change in surface snow height. The strongest accumulation occurred during the period October–March, with four episodic increases occurring during 2002. These episodic events coincided with obvious humidity ‘pulses’ and decreases of incoming solar radiation as recorded by the AWS. Observations of the total cloud amount at Davis station, 160 km north-northeast of LGB69, showed good correlation with major accumulation events recorded at LGB69. There was an obvious anticorrelation between the lowest cloud height at Davis and the daily accumulation rate at LGB69. Although there was no correlation over the total year between wind speed and accumulation at LGB69, large individual accumulation events are associated with episodes of strong wind. Strong accumulation events at LGB69 are associated with major storms in the region and inland transport of moist air masses from the coast.

scholarly journals The Weddell Sea region: an important precipitation channel to the interior of the Antarctic ice sheet as revealed by glaciochemical investigation of surface snow along the longest trans-Antarctic route

1999 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 55-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qin Dahe ◽  
Paul A. Mayewski ◽  
Ren Jiawen ◽  
Xiao Cunde ◽  
Sun Junying
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Weddell Sea ◽  
Sea Salt ◽  
East Antarctica ◽  
Antarctic Ice Sheet ◽  
Air Masses ◽  
Antarctic Plateau ◽  
Salt Ions ◽  
Surface Snow ◽  
The Antarctic

AbstractGlaciochemical analysis of surface snow samples, collected along a profile crossing the Antarctic ice sheet from the Larsen Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, via the Antarctic Plateau through South Pole, Vostok and Komsomolskaya to Mirny station (at the east margin of East Antarctica), shows that the Weddell Sea region is an important channel for air masses to the high plateau of the Antarctic ice sheet (>2000 m a.s.l.). This opinion is supported by the following. (1) The fluxes of sea-salt ions such as Na+, Mg2 + and CF display a decreasing trend from the west to the east of interior Antarctica. In |eneral, as sea-salt aerosols are injected into the atmosphere over the Antarctic ice sheet from the Weddell Sea, large aerosols tend to decrease. For the inland plateau, few large particles of sea-salt aerosol reach the area, and the sea-salt concentration levels are low (2) The high altitude of the East Antarctic plateau, as well as the polar cold high-pressure system, obstruct the intrusive air masses mainly from the South Indian Ocean sector. (3) For the coastal regions of the East Antarctic ice sheet, the elevation rises to 2000 m over a distance from several to several tens of km. High concentrations of sea salt exist in snow in East Antarctica but are limited to a narrow coastal zone. (4) Fluxes of calcium and non-sea-salt sulfate in snow from the interior plateau do not display an eastward-decreasing trend. Since calcium is mainly derived from crustal sources, and nssSO42- is a secondary aerosol, this again confirms that the eastward-declining tendency of sea-salt ions indicates the transfer direction of precipitation vapor.

scholarly journals A Joint Inversion Estimate of Antarctic Ice Sheet Mass Balance Using Multi-Geodetic Data Sets

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 653 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunchun Gao ◽  
Yang Lu ◽  
Zizhan Zhang ◽  
Hongling Shi
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Joint Inversion ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Mass Change ◽  
West Antarctica ◽  
Amundsen Sea ◽  
Antarctic Ice Sheet ◽  
Forward Models ◽  
Uplift Rates ◽  
The Antarctic

Many recent mass balance estimates using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and satellite altimetry (including two kinds of sensors of radar and laser) show that the ice mass of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) is in overall decline. However, there are still large differences among previously published estimates of the total mass change, even in the same observed periods. The considerable error sources mainly arise from the forward models (e.g., glacial isostatic adjustment [GIA] and firn compaction) that may be uncertain but indispensable to simulate some processes not directly measured or obtained by these observations. To minimize the use of these forward models, we estimate the mass change of ice sheet and present-day GIA using multi-geodetic observations, including GRACE and Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), as well as Global Positioning System (GPS), by an improved method of joint inversion estimate (JIE), which enables us to solve simultaneously for the Antarctic GIA and ice mass trends. The GIA uplift rates generated from our JIE method show a good agreement with the elastic-corrected GPS uplift rates, and the total GIA-induced mass change estimate for the AIS is 54 ± 27 Gt/yr, which is in line with many recent GPS calibrated GIA estimates. Our GIA result displays the presence of significant uplift rates in the Amundsen Sea Embayment of West Antarctica, where strong uplift has been observed by GPS. Over the period February 2003 to October 2009, the entire AIS changed in mass by −84 ± 31 Gt/yr (West Antarctica: −69 ± 24, East Antarctica: 12 ± 16 and the Antarctic Peninsula: −27 ± 8), greater than the GRACE-only estimates obtained from three Mascon solutions (CSR: −50 ± 30, JPL: −71 ± 30, and GSFC: −51 ± 33 Gt/yr) for the same period. This may imply that single GRACE data tend to underestimate ice mass loss due to the signal leakage and attenuation errors of ice discharge are often worse than that of surface mass balance over the AIS.

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