Photo of a rainy weather and melting sea ice in Adélie, Antarctica, during the passage of an atmospheric river
Rainy weather and melting on the sea ice in Adélie land, Antarctica during the passage of an atmospheric river. © Bruno Jourdain
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Atmospheric rivers trigger melting in West Antarctica

Press area Scientific result Ocean Atmosphere

Surface melting in West Antarctica is triggered by atmospheric rivers that transport heat and moisture from the mid-latitudes and sub-tropics to the polar regions according to a new study from researchers1 from the University Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Sorbonne University, and from Portugal and the United Kingdom. Their study will be published in the journal Nature Geoscience on October 28th 2019.

  • 1The laboratories involved are: IGE - Institut des géosciences de l’environnement, CNRS/UGA/IRD/Grenoble INP, Saint Martin d'Hères, France CESAM - Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, Department of Physics, University of Aveiro, Portugal British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK LSCE - Laboratoire des sciences du climat et l'environnement, UVSQ/CNRS/CEA, Gif-sur-Yvette, France LOCEAN - Laboratoire d'océanographie et du climat : expérimentations et approches numériques, MNHN/CNRS/IRD/Sorbonne Université, Paris
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Bibliography

West Antarctic surface melt triggered by atmospheric rivers
Jonathan D. Wille, Vincent Favier, Ambroise Dufour, Irina V. Gorodetskaya, John Turner, Cécile Agosta & Francis Codron
Nature Geoscience, 28 octobre 2019