edu.ucar.opensky::articles:26119 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-24T19:38:59.222783 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7736vtq https://doi.org/10.15784/601552 https Related Dataset #1 AMIGOS-III Cavity and Channel Snow Height and Thermistor Snow Temperature Data https://doi.org/10.5065/D62R3QFS https Related Dataset #2 3-hourly MERRA2 IVT, uIVT, vIVT, IWV data computed for ARTMIP https://doi.org/10.5067/L0T5GEG1NYFA https Related Dataset #3 MERRA-2 tavg1_2d_lfo_Nx: 2d,1-Hourly,Time-Averaged,Single-Level,Assimilation,Land Surface Forcings V5.12.4 https://doi.org/10.5067/ME5QX6Q5IGGU https Related Dataset #4 MERRA-2 const_2d_asm_Nx: 2d, constants https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7320237 https Related Dataset #5 SNOWPACK simulations for Thwaites Cavity and Channel AMIGOS sites in West Antarctica https://doi.org/10.7283/T50P0XBC https Related Dataset #6 Antarctica-POLENET GPS Network https://doi.org/10.7283/T5NK3C7D https Related Dataset #7 Antarctica-POLENET GPS Network https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7331794 https Related Software #1 snowpack-model/snowpack: 149c586 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7536784 https Related Software #2 snowpack-model/snowpack: 7afca63 Climatology and surface impacts of atmospheric rivers on West Antarctica 2023-02-21T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7736vtq https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-865-2023 Maclennan, M. L. author Lenaerts, J. T. M. author Shields, Christine A. author Hoffman, A. O. author Wever, N. author Thompson-Munson, M. author Winters, A. C. author Pettit, E. C. author Scambos, T. A. author Wille, J. D. author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher Atmospheric rivers (ARs) transport large amounts of moisture from the mid- to high-latitudes and they are a primary driver of the most extreme snowfall events, along with surface melting, in Antarctica. In this study, we characterize the climatology and surface impacts of ARs on West Antarctica, focusing on the Amundsen Sea Embayment and Marie Byrd Land. First, we develop a climatology of ARs in this region, using an Antarctic-specific AR detection tool combined with the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Reanalysis v5 (ERA5) atmospheric reanalyses. We find that while ARs are infrequent (occurring 3 % of the time), they cause intense precipitation in short periods of time and account for 11 % of the annual surface accumulation. They are driven by the coupling of a blocking high over the Antarctic Peninsula with a low-pressure system known as the Amundsen Sea Low. Next, we use observations from automatic weather stations on Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf with the firn model SNOWPACK and interferometric reflectometry (IR) to examine a case study of three ARs that made landfall in rapid succession from 2 to 8 February 2020, known as an AR family event. While accumulation dominates the surface impacts of the event on Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf (> 100 kgm(-2) or millimeters water equivalent), we find small amounts of surface melt as well (< 5 kgm(-2)). The results presented here enable us to quantify the past impacts of ARs on West Antarctica's surface mass balance (SMB) and characterize their interannual variability and trends, enabling a better assessment of future AR-driven changes in the SMB. UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. None eng geoscientificInformation