Howard Conway

Albedo of dirty snow during conditions of melt

The evolution of spectrally averaged albedo (wavelengths between 0.28 μm and 2.8 μm) of snow surfaces treated with known initial concentrations of particles of submicron-sized soot and air fall volcanic ash was investigated during conditions of natural melt. Depending on the particle type and concentration, the initial applications reduced the surface albedo to values ranging from 0.18 to 0.41 which were substantially lower than the albedo of the untreated natural snow (about 0.61). Many of the soot particles flushed through the snowpack with the meltwater, and surface concentrations of soot greater than about 5 × 10−7 kg/kg did not persist for more than a few days. The migration of particles to depth caused the snow to brighten after the initial application, thus limiting the amount of albedo reduction and the consequent effects on melting. Nevertheless, the soot remaining near the surface had a substantial, long-term effect. The residual concentration of 5 × 10−7 kg/kg persisted for several weeks and, compared to the untreated surface, reduced the albedo by about 30% and increased melting by 50%. Particles of volcanic ash with diameters larger than about 5 μm remained at or near the snow surface. Although many of the smaller particles flushed through the snow with the meltwater, the surface albedo was not changed significantly by their removal. The different behaviors of the ash and soot are probably related to the difference in their particle size distributions in relation to the thickness of water films that form the transport paths under conditions of partial saturation that are characteristic of melting snow.

Onset of deglacial warming in West Antarctica driven by local orbital forcing

The cause of warming in the Southern Hemisphere during the most recent deglaciation remains a matter of debate. Hypotheses for a Northern Hemisphere trigger, through oceanic redistributions of heat, are based in part on the abrupt onset of warming seen in East Antarctic ice cores and dated to 18,000 years ago, which is several thousand years after high-latitude Northern Hemisphere summer insolation intensity began increasing from its minimum, approximately 24,000 years ago. An alternative explanation is that local solar insolation changes cause the Southern Hemisphere to warm independently. Here we present results from a new, annually resolved ice-core record from West Antarctica that reconciles these two views. The records show that 18,000 years ago snow accumulation in West Antarctica began increasing, coincident with increasing carbon dioxide concentrations, warming in East Antarctica and cooling in the Northern Hemisphere associated with an abrupt decrease in Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. However, significant warming in West Antarctica began at least 2,000 years earlier. Circum-Antarctic sea-ice decline, driven by increasing local insolation, is the likely cause of this warming. The marine-influenced West Antarctic records suggest a more active role for the Southern Ocean in the onset of deglaciation than is inferred from ice cores in the East Antarctic interior, which are largely isolated from sea-ice changes.

Switch of flow direction in an Antarctic ice stream

Fast-flowing ice streams transport ice from the interior of West Antarctica to the ocean, and fluctuations in their activity control the mass balance of the ice sheet. The mass balance of the Ross Sea sector of the West Antarctic ice sheet is now positive—that is, it is growing—mainly because one of the ice streams (ice stream C) slowed down about 150 years ago. Here we present evidence from both surface measurements and remote sensing that demonstrates the highly dynamic nature of the Ross drainage system. We show that the flow in an area that once discharged into ice stream C has changed direction, now draining into the Whillans ice stream (formerly ice stream B). This switch in flow direction is a result of continuing thinning of the Whillans ice stream and recent thickening of ice stream C. Further abrupt reorganization of the activity and configuration of the ice streams over short timescales is to be expected in the future as the surface topography of the ice sheet responds to the combined effects of internal dynamics and long-term climate change. We suggest that caution is needed when using observations of short-term mass changes to draw conclusions about the large-scale mass balance of the ice sheet.

Precise interpolar phasing of abrupt climate change during the last ice age

The last glacial period exhibited abrupt Dansgaard–Oeschger climatic oscillations, evidence of which is preserved in a variety of Northern Hemisphere palaeoclimate archives. Ice cores show that Antarctica cooled during the warm phases of the Greenland Dansgaard–Oeschger cycle and vice versa, suggesting an interhemispheric redistribution of heat through a mechanism called the bipolar seesaw. Variations in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) strength are thought to have been important, but much uncertainty remains regarding the dynamics and trigger of these abrupt events. Key information is contained in the relative phasing of hemispheric climate variations, yet the large, poorly constrained difference between gas age and ice age and the relatively low resolution of methane records from Antarctic ice cores have so far precluded methane-based synchronization at the required sub-centennial precision. Here we use a recently drilled high-accumulation Antarctic ice core to show that, on average, abrupt Greenland warming leads the corresponding Antarctic cooling onset by 218 ± 92 years (2σ) for Dansgaard–Oeschger events, including the Bølling event; Greenland cooling leads the corresponding onset of Antarctic warming by 208 ± 96 years. Our results demonstrate a north-to-south directionality of the abrupt climatic signal, which is propagated to the Southern Hemisphere high latitudes by oceanic rather than atmospheric processes. The similar interpolar phasing of warming and cooling transitions suggests that the transfer time of the climatic signal is independent of the AMOC background state. Our findings confirm a central role for ocean circulation in the bipolar seesaw and provide clear criteria for assessing hypotheses and model simulations of Dansgaard–Oeschger dynamics.

Interfacial water in polar glaciers and glacier sliding at −17°C

We have observed sliding at a cold (-17 oC) ice-rock interface beneath Meserve Glacier, Antarctica, and the segregation of ice into clean lenses amidst the dirty basal layers of this glacier. We interpret these as manifestations of thin water films at ice-rock interfaces. We use Shreves theory for sub-freezing sliding to esti- mate the nominal film thickness to be at least tens of nanometers. Such water films should exist around rocks in most polar ices, and likely have high solute concen- trations due to solute rejection during regelation and due to exchange with veins and grain boundaries where impurities reside.

Decoding the dipstick: Thickness of Siple Dome, West Antarctica, at the Last Glacial Maximum

Ice thickness in West Antarctica at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) is poorly known, yet is key information for understanding ice streams and interpreting ice cores. Although trim lines, moraine limits, and exposure-age dating provide geologic constraints on ice thickness near the Transantarctic Mountains and in Marie Byrd Land, lack of exposed bedrock hampers traditional geologic methods in a central, ;2 3 10 6 km 2 region. Here we infer ice-sheet thickness changes in the central Ross Sea Embayment by using a tran- sient ice-flow model to find combinations of accumulation-rate and ice-sheet thickness histories that match the depth-age relationship and the measured layer-thickness pattern in the Siple Dome ice core. After we reject unreasonable accumulation-rate histories, the remaining history pairs indicate thinning of 200-400 m since the LGM. Our estimate is lower than previous reconstructions that were constrained by geologic evidence from the Transantarctic Mountains and by marine data from the Ross Sea floor, which indicate that a grounded ice sheet extended to the continental shelf margin during the last glacial period. Low surface elevations in the central Ross Sea Embayment during the LGM do not preclude thicker ice along its boundaries. However, if this grounded ice sheet came over 1000 km from interior West Antarctica, as is usually assumed, then it had very low surface slope, requiring a very slippery bed. Alternatively, the grounded Ross Sea ice might have flowed from the Transantarctic Mountains and western Marie Byrd Land.

Climate and Glacier Variability in Western North America

A simple model using once-daily upper-air values in the NCEP‐NCAR reanalysis database estimates seasonal mass balance at two glaciers in southern Alaska, one in western Canada, and one in Washington substantially better than any of several seasonally averaged, large-scale climate indices commonly used. Whereas sea level pressure and sea surface temperature in the Pacific exert a strong influence on the climate in the region, temperature and moisture flux at 850 mb have a more direct effect on mass balance processes—accumulation and ablation—because their temporal variability better matches that of those processes. The 40-yr record of 850-mb temperature shows winter warming after 1976 and summer warming after 1988 throughout the region; mass balance records reflect the summer warming at all four glaciers but winter warming only at the southern two. The only pronounced long-term change in the moisture regime is a decrease of precipitation in the south and an increase in the north. Interannual variations in the location of the moisture flux, however, apparently account for the strong negative correlation between the Alaska glaciers and the other two.

Bed reflectivity beneath inactive ice streams in West Antarctica

Abstract Radio-echo sounding (RES) techniques are used to examine spatial changes in bed reflectivity across relict ice streams inWest Antarctica. Measurements from adjacent interstream ridges are used to correct the measured power returned from the bed for attenuation and losses due to geometric spreading, scattering and absorption. RES measurements near boreholes drilled on Ice Stream C (ISC) indicate high coefficients of bed reflectivity (R > 0.1) in locations where the bed was thawed and boreholes connected to the basal water system, and low reflectivity coefficients (R < 0.02) at locations that were frozen and not connected. Intermediate values of bed reflectivity were measured at locations where the connection to the basal water system was weak. Measurements across four relict margins show that bed reflectivity usually jumps from low to high values several kilometers inside the outermost buried crevasses. We interpret this to be a transition from frozen to thawed basal conditions and discuss implications of these observations.

Radio-frequency attenuation beneath Siple Dome,West Antarctica, from wide-angle and profiling radar observations

Abstract Knowledge of the spatial distribution of bed lubrication regimes, i.e. frozen vs wet conditions, is crucial for understanding ice-sheet flow. Radar sounding can probe differing reflectivities between wet and frozen beds, but is limited by uncertainty in attenuation within the ice of bed echoes. Here we present two methods to estimate attenuation: (1) wide-angle radar sounding, in which source and receiver locations are varied so as to vary propagation path length, and thus echo amplitude; and (2) profiling, inwhich similar variations are obtained by sounding through varying ice thicknesses (assuming constant bed reflectivity). Siple Dome, West Antarctica, provides unusually favorable circumstances for application of these methods: the bed beneath Siple Dome is flat and uniform in its radar reflectivity, while ice thickness varies by several hundred meters. Wide-angle data 4 km from the summit yield an estimate for characteristic attenuation length of 124 m (35 dB km–1 loss), whereas profiling yields an estimate of 168 m.The difference between estimates is modest compared to the range of attenuation lengths reported in the literature. It may nonetheless prove informative by bounding effects of two ice properties to which the methods respond differently: (1) wide-angle sounding sampled relatively warm (lossy) ice beneath the summit, whereas the profiling method sampled relatively cold ice beneath the flanks as well; and (2) strain-induced crystal orientation fabrics and resulting dielectric anisotropy in the ice would vary from summit to flank, and may influence wide-angle sounding more strongly than profiling.

Seasonal Variations of Glaciochemical, Isotopic and Stratigraphic Properties in Siple Dome (Antarctica) Surface Snow

Six snow-pit records recovered from Siple Dome, West Antarctica, during 1994 are used to study seasonal variations in chemical (major ion and H 202 ), isotopic (deuterium) and physical stratigraphic properties during the 1988-94 period. Comparison of δD measurements and satellite-derived brightness temperature for the Siple Dome area suggests that most seasonal SD maxima occur within ±4 weeks of each 1 January. Several other chemical species (H 2O2 , non-sea-salt (nss) SO 4 2 -, methanesulfonic acid and NO3-) show coeval peaks with SD, together providing an accurate method for identifying summer accumulation. Sea-salt-derived species generally peak during winter/spring, but episodic input is noted throughout some years. No reliable seasonal signal is identified in species with continental sources (nssCa 2+ nss Mg 2+ ), NH 4 + or nssCl-. Visible strata such as large depth-hoar layers (>5 cm) are associated with summer accumulation and its metamorphosis, but smaller hoar layers and crusts are more difficult to interpret. A multi-parameter approach is found to provide the most accurate dating of these snow-pit records, and is used to determine annual layer thicknesses at each site Significant spatial accumulation variability exists on an annual basis, but mean accumulation in the sampled 10 km 2 grid for the 1988-94 period is fairly uniform.