Century-long West Antarctic snow accumulation changes induced by tropical teleconnections
Ice core measurements reveal dipole-like snow accumulation trends over West Antarctica throughout the 20th century, with an increase of >2000 billion metric tons over the Antarctic Peninsula and Ellsworth Land but a decrease of ~500 billion metric tons over Marie Byrd Land. Although atmospheric teleconnections were frequently revealed, linking variability between tropics and higher latitudes on interannual and decadal timescales, centennial-scale teleconnection is absent from literature. Here, using statistical analysis and numerical experiments, we reveal that changes of tropical oceans throughout the 20th century drive the long-term Antarctic snowfall trend. A pronounced warming over the tropical Atlantic and a moderate cooling over the equatorial Pacific have driven an adjustment of moisture transport and thus snowfall pattern in West Antarctica. Our study reveals a centennial tropical-polar teleconnection, producing long-term trends with opposing changes across the regions. Remote forcing from the tropics increased the mass accumulation over Antarctica, balanced rapid iceshelf thinning in recent decades, contributing to global sea-level changes.
Authors
- David M. Holland
- Jürg Luterbacher (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8569-0973)
- Yurong Hou
- Wenju Cai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6520-0829)
- Naiming Yuan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0580-609X)
- Yetang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2499-1147)
- Guitao Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1702-6322)
- Kai Man (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7026-1714)
- Xichen Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6325-6626)
- Lei Geng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2175-2538)
- Yonggang Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8844-2185)
Institutions
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Sun Yat-sen University (CN)
- Xiamen University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (DE)
- Peking University (CN)
- Shandong Normal University (CN)
- Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (US)
- Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) (CN)
- Ministry of Education (ME)
- Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (CN)
- Institute of Atmospheric Physics (CN)
- Institute of Earth Environment (CN)
- Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (MY)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai) (CN)
- New York University (US)
- Ocean University of China (CN)
- East China Normal University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2025-01-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adr2821
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Cryospheric studies and observations
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.90