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Abstract Recent rapid thinning of West Antarctic ice shelves are believed to be caused by intrusions of warm deep water that induce basal melting and seaward meltwater export. This study uses data from three bottom-mounted mooring arrays to show seasonal variability and local forcing for the currents moving into and out of the Dotson ice shelf cavity. A southward flow of warm, salty water had maximum current velocities along the eastern channel slope, while northward outflows of freshened ice shelf meltwater spread at intermediate depth above the western slope. The inflow correlated with the local ocean surface stress curl. At the western slope, meltwater outflows followed the warm influx along the eastern slope with a ~2–3 month delay. Ocean circulation near Dotson Ice Shelf, affected by sea ice distribution and wind, appears to significantly control the inflow of warm water and subsequent ice shelf melting on seasonal time-scales. 

Abstract Pine Island Ice Shelf (PIIS) buttresses the Pine Island Glacier, the key contributor to sea-level rise. PIIS has thinned owing to ocean-driven melting, and its calving front has retreated, leading to buttressing loss. PIIS melting depends primarily on the thermocline variability in its front. Furthermore, local ocean circulation shifts adjust heat transport within Pine Island Bay (PIB), yet oceanic processes underlying the ice front retreat remain unclear. Here, we report a PIB double-gyre that moves with the PIIS calving front and hypothesise that it controls ocean heat input towards PIIS. Glacial melt generates cyclonic and anticyclonic gyres near and off PIIS, and meltwater outflows converge into the anticyclonic gyre with a deep-convex-downward thermocline. The double-gyre migrated eastward as the calving front retreated, placing the anticyclonic gyre over a shallow seafloor ridge, reducing the ocean heat input towards PIIS. Reconfigurations of meltwater-driven gyres associated with moving ice boundaries might be crucial in modulating ocean heat delivery to glacial ice. 

Abstract. Ocean-driven ice loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is asignificant contributor to sea-level rise. Recent ocean variability in theAmundsen Sea is controlled by near-surface winds. We combine palaeoclimatereconstructions and climate model simulations to understand past and futureinfluences on Amundsen Sea winds from anthropogenic forcing and internalclimate variability. The reconstructions show strong historical wind trends.External forcing from greenhouse gases and stratospheric ozone depletiondrove zonally uniform westerly wind trends centred over the deep SouthernOcean. Internally generated trends resemble a South Pacific Rossby wavetrain and were highly influential over the Amundsen Sea continental shelf.There was strong interannual and interdecadal variability over the AmundsenSea, with periods of anticyclonic wind anomalies in the 1940s and 1990s,when rapid ice-sheet loss was initiated. Similar anticyclonic anomaliesprobably occurred prior to the 20th century but without causing the presentice loss. This suggests that ice loss may have been triggered naturally inthe 1940s but failed to recover subsequently due to the increasingimportance of anthropogenic forcing from greenhouse gases (since the 1960s)and ozone depletion (since the 1980s). Future projections also featurestrong wind trends. Emissions mitigation influences wind trends over thedeep Southern Ocean but has less influence on winds over the Amundsen Seashelf, where internal variability creates a large and irreducibleuncertainty. This suggests that strong emissions mitigation is needed tominimise ice loss this century but that the uncontrollable future influenceof internal climate variability could be equally important. 

Abstract Antarctic glacial meltwater is thought to play an important role in determining large-scale Southern Ocean climate trends, yet recent modeling efforts have proceeded without a good understanding of how its vertical distribution in the water column is set. To rectify this, here we conduct new large-eddy simulations of the ascent of a buoyant meltwater plume after its escape from beneath an Antarctic ice shelf. We find that the meltwater’s settling depth is primarily a function of the buoyancy forcing per unit width of the source and the ambient stratification, consistent with the classical theory of turbulent buoyant plumes and in contrast to previous work that suggested an important role for centrifugal instability. Our results further highlight the significant role played by localized variability in stratification; this helps explain observed interannual variability in the vertical meltwater distribution near Pine Island Glacier. Because of the vast heterogeneity in mass loss rates and ambient conditions at different Antarctic ice shelves, a dynamic parameterization of meltwater settling depth may be crucial for accurately simulating high-latitude climate in a warming world; we discuss how this may be developed following this work, and where the remaining challenges lie. 

This paper reviews the scientific motivation and challenges, development, and use of underwater robotic vehicles designed for use in ice-covered waters, with special attention paid to the navigation systems employed for under-ice deployments. Scientific needs for routine access under fixed and moving ice by underwater robotic vehicles are reviewed in the contexts of geology and geophysics, biology, sea ice and climate, ice shelves, and seafloor mapping. The challenges of under-ice vehicle design and navigation are summarized. The paper reviews all known under-ice robotic vehicles and their associated navigation systems, categorizing them by vehicle type (tethered, untethered, hybrid, and glider) and by the type of ice they were designed for (fixed glacial or sea ice and moving sea ice). 

The Getz region of West Antarctica is losing ice at an increasing rate; however, the forcing mechanisms remain unclear. Here we use satellite observations and an ice sheet model to measure the change in ice speed and mass balance of the drainage basin over the last 25-years. Our results show a mean increase in speed of 23.8 % between 1994 and 2018, with three glaciers accelerating by over 44 %. Speedup across the Getz basin is linear, with speedup and thinning directly correlated confirming the presence of dynamic imbalance. Since 1994, 315 Gt of ice has been lost contributing 0.9 ± 0.6 mm global mean sea level, with increased loss since 2010 caused by a snowfall reduction. Overall, dynamic imbalance accounts for two thirds of the mass loss from this region of West Antarctica over the past 25-years, with a longer-term response to ocean forcing the likely driving mechanism.

 

Abstract. Ocean-induced basal melting is directly and indirectly responsible for much of the Amundsen Sea Embayment ice loss in recent decades, but the total magnitude and spatiotemporal evolution of this melt is poorly constrained. To address this problem, we generated a record of high-resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) for Pine Island Glacier (PIG) using commercial sub-meter satellite stereo imagery and integrated additional 2002–2015 DEM/altimetry data. We implemented a Lagrangian elevation change (Dh/Dt) framework to estimate ice shelf basal melt rates at 32–256-m resolution. We describe this methodology and consider basal melt rates and elevation change over the PIG shelf and lower catchment from 2008–2015. We document the evolution of Eulerian elevation change (dh/dt) and upstream propagation of thinning signals following the end of rapid grounding line retreat around 2010. Mean full-shelf basal melt rates for the 2008–2015 period were ~82–93 Gt/yr, with ~ 200–250 m/yr basal melt rates within large channels near the grounding line, ~ 10–30 m/yr over the main shelf, and ~ 0–10 m/yr over the North and South shelves, with the notable exception of a small area with rates of ~ 50–100 m/yr near the grounding line of a fast-flowing tributary on the South shelf. The observed basal melt rates show excellent agreement with, and provide context for, in situ basal melt rate observations. We also document the relative melt rates for km-scale basal channels and keels at different locations on the shelf and consider implications for ocean circulation and heat content. These methods and results offer new indirect observations of ice-ocean interaction and constraints on the processes driving sub-shelf melting beneath vulnerable ice shelves in West Antarctica.