Antarctic ice shelf disintegration triggered by sea ice loss and ocean swell

The data are from our Nature Article from June 2018: "Antarctic ice shelf disintegration triggered by sea ice loss and ocean swell".


The abstract is:

"Understanding the causes of recent catastrophic ice shelf disintegrations is a crucial step towards improving coupled models of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and predicting its future state and contribution to sea-level rise. An overlooked climate-related causal factor is regional sea ice loss. Here we show that for the disintegration events observed (the collapse of the Larsen A and B and Wilkins ice shelves), the increased seasonal absence of a protective sea ice buffer enabled increased flexure of vulnerable outer ice shelf margins by ocean swells that probably weakened them to the point of calving. This outer-margin calving triggered wider-scale disintegration of ice shelves compromised by multiple factors in preceding years, with key prerequisites being extensive flooding and outer-margin fracturing. Wave-induced flexure is particularly effective in outermost ice shelf regions thinned by bottom crevassing. Our analysis of satellite and ocean-wave data and modelling of combined ice shelf, sea ice and wave properties highlights the need for ice sheet models to account for sea ice and ocean waves."


Details of the analyses and data used, and the data generated by this study, are given in the paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0212-1.


Code availability: Analytical scripts used in this study are freely available from the authors

via the corresponding author upon reasonable request.


Data availability: The datasets and products generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.


The datasets forming the basis of the study are available as follows:


(1) Sea ice: Daily estimates of satellite-derived sea ice concentration (gridded at a spatial

resolution of 25 x 25 km) derived by the NASA Bootstrap algorithm for the period 1979-2010 were obtained from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) dataset at:

http://nsidc.org/data/NSIDC-0079. Accessed August 2015.


(2) Waves: Ocean wave-field data were obtained from the CAWCR (Collaboration for

Australian Weather and Climate Research) Wave Hindcast 1979–2010 dataset run on a 0.4 x 0.4° global grid: https://doi.org/10.4225/08/523168703DCC5. Accessed September 2017.


(3) Satellite visible and thermal infrared imagery of ice shelves and disintegration events: The NOAA AVHRR image of the Larsen1995 disintegration used in Figure 2 was obtained from the British Antarctic Survey: http://www.nerc-bas.ac.uk/icd/bas_publ.html. Accessed June 2015.

MODIS visible and 839 thermal infrared imagery from the US NSIDC archive at:

http://nsidc.org/data/iceshelves_images/. Accessed June 2012.


The study involved 2 model components, and model output is described below. The 2 models are: (i) a model of ocean swell attenuation by sea ice; and (ii) an ice shelf-ocean wave interaction model. Descriptions of both are given in the Nature paper (Methods section).


DESCRIPTIONS OF THE 13 INDIVIDUAL DATA FILES PROVIDED (NB DESCRIPTIONS OF DATASETS GENERATED RELATIVE TO THE FIGURES) ARE GIVEN IN THE FILES:

(1) Source data for Figures 4 (parts a-d), 5 and 6a are given in Excel spreadsheet files "Source-Data_2017-07-09041A_Figure.....xlsx".


(2) Source data for Extended Data Figures 1 (parts a-b), 3 (parts b,d and parts a,c), 4 (parts b,d and a,c) and 6 are given in Excel spreadsheet files "Source-Data_2017-07-09041A_EDFig.....xlsx".

Simple

Identification info

Alternate title
Antarctic ice shelf disintegration triggered by sea ice loss and ocean swell
Date (Publication)
2018-08-07
Edition
1
Citation identifier
Dataset DOI

Title
Information and documentation - Digital object identifier system
Date (Publication)
2012-04-23
Citation identifier
ISO 26324:2012

Citation identifier
doi:10.26179/5b691a7d362af

Originator

Massom, R., Bennetts, L., Squire, V., Reid, P., Scambos, T., Stammerjohn, S.

Publisher

Australian Antarctic Data Centre

Principal investigator

MASSOM, ROB
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia

Principal investigator

BENNETTS, LUKE
School of Mathematical Sciences
University of Adelaide
Adelaide
South Australia
Australia

Principal investigator

SQUIRE, VERNON
University of Otago
Dunedin
Otago
New Zealand

Principal investigator

REID, PHILLIP
Australian Bureau of Meteorology
Hobart
Tasmania
Australia

Principal investigator

SCAMBOS, TED
National Snow and Ice Data Center
University of Colorado
Boulder
Colorado
USA

Principal investigator

STAMMERJOHN, SHARON
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research
University of Colorado
Boulder
Colorado
USA

Collaborator

MASSOM, ROB
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia

Collaborator

BENNETTS, LUKE
School of Mathematical Sciences
University of Adelaide
Adelaide
South Australia
Australia

Collaborator

SQUIRE, VERNON
University of Otago
Dunedin
Otago
New Zealand

Collaborator

REID, PHILLIP
Australian Bureau of Meteorology
Hobart
Tasmania
Australia

Collaborator

SCAMBOS, TED
National Snow and Ice Data Center
University of Colorado
Boulder
Colorado
USA

Collaborator

STAMMERJOHN, SHARON
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research
University of Colorado
Boulder
Colorado
USA
Name
CAASM Metadata
Website
https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/AAS_4116_IceShelfStudy

Purpose
The purpose of the dataset is to investigate the role of ocean swells in triggering ice shelf disintegration events on the Antarctic Peninsula since 1995 in the absence of a protective sea ice "buffer".
Status
Completed

Custodian

AU/AADC > Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia - AADC, DATA OFFICER (DATA CENTER CONTACT)
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia
Topic category
  • Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere
  • Oceans

Extent

N
S
E
W


Extent

Description
Temporal Coverage

Temporal extent

TimePeriod
1980-01-01 2010-12-31
Title
Antarctic ice shelf disintegration triggered by sea ice loss and ocean swell.
Date (Publication)
2018
Citation identifier
558

Citation identifier
doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0212-1

Author

Massom, Robert A., Theodore A. Scambos, Luke G. Bennetts, Phillip Reid, Vernon A. Squire and Sharon R. Stammerjohn.
Name
Nature
Page
383-389
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • EARTH SCIENCE > CRYOSPHERE > GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS
  • EARTH SCIENCE > CRYOSPHERE > GLACIERS/ICE SHEETS > ICEBERGS
  • EARTH SCIENCE > CRYOSPHERE > SEA ICE > ICE EXTENT
  • EARTH SCIENCE > CRYOSPHERE > SEA ICE
  • EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN WAVES > SWELLS
  • EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN WAVES > WAVE PERIOD
  • EARTH SCIENCE > OCEANS > OCEAN WAVES > SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHT
  • EARTH SCIENCE > CRYOSPHERE > SEA ICE > SEA ICE CONCENTRATION
Keywords
  • ICE SHELF
  • ICE SHELF STRAIN
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • SMMR > Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer
  • SSM/I > Special Sensor Microwave/Imager
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • SATELLITES
  • MODELS
  • DMSP > Defense Meteorological Satellite Program
  • Nimbus-7
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • ACE/CRC
  • AMD/AU
  • AMD
  • CEOS
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR
  • CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA
  • OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN
  • CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA > ANTARCTIC PENINSULA

Resource constraints

Use limitation
This metadata record is publicly available.

Resource constraints

Access constraints
licence
Other constraints
These data are publicly available for download from the provided URL.

Resource constraints

File type
Portable Network Graphic
Linkage
Creative Commons by Attribution logo

Title
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Website
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

Legal code for Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 International license

Use constraints
licence
Other constraints
Please also cite: Massom, Robert A., Theodore A. Scambos, Luke G. Bennetts, Phillip Reid, Vernon A. Squire and Sharon R. Stammerjohn. (2018) Antarctic ice shelf disintegration triggered by sea ice loss and ocean swell. Nature, 558, 383-389, doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0212-1 This data set conforms to the CCBY Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Please follow instructions listed in the citation reference provided at http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/metadata/citation.cfm?entry_id=AAS_4116_IceShelfStudy when using these data.
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor

Distributor

AU/AADC > Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia - AADC, DATA OFFICER (DATA CENTER CONTACT)
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia

Distributor

Fees
Free
Planned available datetime
2018-08-07T00:00:00
Units of distribution
MB
Transfer size
1.3
Distribution format
  • Excel

OnLine resource
GET DATA

Download the dataset

OnLine resource
PROJECT HOME PAGE

Public information for AAS project AAS_4116

OnLine resource
VIEW RELATED INFORMATION

Citation reference for this metadata record and dataset.

Maintenance and update frequency
As needed
Maintenance note
2018-08-03 - record created by Rob Massom.

Metadata

Metadata identifier
string/AAS_4116_IceShelfStudy

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Author

MASSOM, ROB
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia

Author

REID, PHILLIP
Australian Bureau of Meteorology
Hobart
Tasmania
Australia

Sponsor

Australian Antarctic Division

Owner

AADC

Type of resource

Resource scope
Dataset

Alternative metadata reference

Title
gov.nasa.gsfc.gcmd
Citation identifier
fbebd6f8-1271-4933-9a7c-7dc2825b431c

Alternative metadata reference

Title
gov.nasa.gsfc.gcmd
Date (Last Revision)
2021-11-17T12:22:29

Identifier

Description
metadata.extraction_date

Alternative metadata reference

Title
gov.nasa.gsfc.gcmd
Citation identifier
8.6

Metadata linkage
http://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/AAS_4116_IceShelfStudy

Point of truth for the metadata record

Date info (Creation)
2018-08-03T00:00:00
Date info (Last Update)
2018-08-03

Metadata standard

Title
ISO 19115-3
Edition
2014
Other citation details
Version 1
Title
DIF to ISO 19115-1 Profile
 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords


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