The extraordinary March 2022 east Antarctica "Heat" wave. part II: impacts on the Antarctic ice sheet

Between 15 and 19 March 2022, East Antarctica experienced an exceptional heat wave with widespread 30 degrees-40 degrees C temperature anomalies across the ice sheet. In Part I, we assessed the meteorological drivers that generated an intense atmospheric river (AR) that caused these record-shattering temperature anomalies. Here, we continue our large collaborative study by analyzing the widespread and diverse impacts driven by the AR landfall. These impacts included widespread rain and surface melt that was recorded along coastal areas, but this was outweighed by widespread high snowfall accumulations resulting in a largely positive surface mass balance contribution to the East Antarctic region. An analysis of the surface energy budget indicated that widespread downward longwave radiation anomalies caused by large cloudliquid water contents along with some scattered solar radiation produced intense surface warming. Isotope measurements of the moisture were highly elevated, likely imprinting a strong signal for past climate reconstructions. The AR event attenuated cosmic ray measurements at Concordia, something previously never observed. Last, an extratropical cyclone west of the AR landfall likely triggered the final collapse of the critically unstable Conger Ice Shelf while further reducing an already record low sea ice extent.

To Access Resource:

Questions? Email Resource Support Contact:

  • opensky@ucar.edu
    UCAR/NCAR - Library

Resource Type publication
Temporal Range Begin N/A
Temporal Range End N/A
Temporal Resolution N/A
Bounding Box North Lat N/A
Bounding Box South Lat N/A
Bounding Box West Long N/A
Bounding Box East Long N/A
Spatial Representation N/A
Spatial Resolution N/A
Related Links N/A
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format PDF
Standardized Resource Format PDF
Asset Size N/A
Legal Constraints

Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Access Constraints None
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name N/A
Resource Support Email opensky@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library
Distributor N/A
Metadata Contact Name N/A
Metadata Contact Email opensky@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library

Author Wille, J. D.
Alexander, S. P.
Amory, C.
Baiman, R.
Barthélemy, L.
Bergstrom, D. M.
Berne, A.
Binder, H.
Blanchet, J.
Bozkurt, D.
Bracegirdle, T. J.
Casado, M.
Choi, T.
Clem, K. R.
Codron, F.
Datta, R.
Battista, S. D.
Favier, V.
Francis, D.
Fraser, A. D.
Fourré, E.
Garreaud, R. D.
Genthon, C.
Gorodetskaya, I. V.
González-Herrero, S.
Heinrich, V. J.
Hubert, G.
Joos, H.
Kim, S.
King, J. C.
Kittel, C.
Landais, A.
Lazzara, M.
Leonard, G. H.
Lieser, J. L.
Maclennan, M.
Mikolajczyk, D.
Neff, P.
Ollivier, I.
Picard, G.
Pohl, B.
Ralph, F. M.
Rowe, P.
Schlosser, E.
Shields, Christine A.
Smith, I. J.
Sprenger, M.
Trusel, L.
Udy, D.
Vance, T.
Vignon, É.
Walker, C.
Wever, N.
Zou, X.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2024-02-01T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
Alternate Identifier N/A
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
Progress N/A
Metadata Date 2025-07-10T20:04:36.920365
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:27107
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Wille, J. D., Alexander, S. P., Amory, C., Baiman, R., Barthélemy, L., Bergstrom, D. M., Berne, A., Binder, H., Blanchet, J., Bozkurt, D., Bracegirdle, T. J., Casado, M., Choi, T., Clem, K. R., Codron, F., Datta, R., Battista, S. D., Favier, V., Francis, D., Fraser, A. D., Fourré, E., Garreaud, R. D., Genthon, C., Gorodetskaya, I. V., González-Herrero, S., Heinrich, V. J., Hubert, G., Joos, H., Kim, S., King, J. C., Kittel, C., Landais, A., Lazzara, M., Leonard, G. H., Lieser, J. L., Maclennan, M., Mikolajczyk, D., Neff, P., Ollivier, I., Picard, G., Pohl, B., Ralph, F. M., Rowe, P., Schlosser, E., Shields, Christine A., Smith, I. J., Sprenger, M., Trusel, L., Udy, D., Vance, T., Vignon, É., Walker, C., Wever, N., Zou, X.. (2024). The extraordinary March 2022 east Antarctica "Heat" wave. part II: impacts on the Antarctic ice sheet. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d75t3qpr. Accessed 27 August 2025.

Harvest Source