Featured
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Letter |
Rapid, climate-driven changes in outlet glaciers on the Pacific coast of East Antarctica
Multidecadal trends in the terminus position of outlet glaciers along the margin of the East Antarctic ice sheet reveal three epochal patterns of glacier retreat or advance consistent with a rapid and coherent response to air temperature and sea-ice trends.
- B. W. J. Miles
- , C. R. Stokes
- & N. J. Cox
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Letter |
Onset of deglacial warming in West Antarctica driven by local orbital forcing
An annually resolved ice-core record from West Antarctica indicates that warming driven by local insolation resulting from sea-ice decline began in that region about 2,000 years before warming in East Antarctica, reconciling two alternative explanations for deglacial warming in the Southern Hemisphere.
- T. J. Fudge
- , Eric J. Steig
- & Gifford J. Wong
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Letter |
Insolation-driven 100,000-year glacial cycles and hysteresis of ice-sheet volume
Comprehensive climate and ice-sheet models show that insolation and internal feedbacks between the climate, the ice sheets and the lithosphere–asthenosphere system explain the 100,000-year period on which the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets grow and shrink.
- Ayako Abe-Ouchi
- , Fuyuki Saito
- & Heinz Blatter
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Review Article |
Ice-sheet mass balance and climate change
A review of the past six years of research on ice-sheet mass-balance change shows that accelerated loss from Greenland is a robust finding, but that loss from Antarctica is probably far lower than previously thought.
- Edward Hanna
- , Francisco J. Navarro
- & H. Jay Zwally
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Letter |
Future sea-level rise from Greenland’s main outlet glaciers in a warming climate
A model of the four main outlet glaciers that drain the Greenland Ice Sheet predicts that they will contribute 19 to 30 millimetres to sea-level rise by 2200 in a mid-range future warming scenario, and 29 to 49 millimetres in a more extreme scenario.
- Faezeh M. Nick
- , Andreas Vieli
- & Roderik S. W. van de Wal
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Letter |
July 2012 Greenland melt extent enhanced by low-level liquid clouds
In July 2012, a heat wave swept across Greenland, resulting in extensive melting of surface ice and flooding; this is shown to have been enhanced by liquid clouds forming in such a way that sufficient incoming shortwave radiation could penetrate to the surface while downwelling longwave radiation increased.
- R. Bennartz
- , M. D. Shupe
- & C. Pettersen
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Letter |
Northern Hemisphere forcing of Southern Hemisphere climate during the last deglaciation
Changes in ocean circulation are the most plausible explanation for the early Southern Hemisphere deglacial warming and its lead over Northern Hemisphere temperature.
- Feng He
- , Jeremy D. Shakun
- & John E. Kutzbach
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Letter |
Glaciations in response to climate variations preconditioned by evolving topography
Previously glaciated landscapes tend to have large areas concentrated at the same elevation; here it is shown that small climate changes can trigger massive glacial expansions for these landscapes, explaining long-term patterns of erosion in the Quaternary period.
- Vivi Kathrine Pedersen
- & David Lundbek Egholm
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Letter |
Increased future ice discharge from Antarctica owing to higher snowfall
Climate models predict that precipitation will increase in Antarctica, leading to potential ice mass gain and an offset to sea level rise, but here it is shown that enhanced snowfall on Antarctica is likely to increase ice discharge and thereby negate 30% to 65% of the snowfall-induced ice gain.
- R. Winkelmann
- , A. Levermann
- & K. Frieler
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Research Highlights |
Ever faster polar ice loss
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News |
Grim picture of polar ice-sheet loss
Antarctica and Greenland are rapidly losing their ice sheets because of climate change, says a comprehensive review.
- Olive Heffernan
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Q&A |
Turning point: Sarah Aciego
Glaciochemist aims to use ice dating to clarify effect of climate change on sea levels.
- Virginia Gewin
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News |
Hunt for life under Antarctic ice heats up
UK and US teams to drill into ancient subglacial lakes.
- Quirin Schiermeier
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Research Highlights |
Thinning ice more fragile and mobile
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Letter |
Rapid coupling between ice volume and polar temperature over the past 150,000 years
A new approach to dating a continuous sea-level record, using speleothem U–Th ages, shows that past variations in global ice volume occurred within centuries of polar climate change, with rates of sea-level rise reaching at least 1 metre per century.
- K. M. Grant
- , E. J. Rohling
- & A. P. Roberts
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News |
Snow survey hopes for avalanche of data
More accurate snowfall measurements could improve climate models and estimates of water resources.
- Jane Qiu
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Research Highlights |
The rapid melt of Greenland
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News Feature |
Melting in the Andes: Goodbye glaciers
Researchers are racing to determine how shrinking glaciers in the Andes will affect the water supply of millions of people.
- Barbara Fraser
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Letter |
Greenland ice-sheet contribution to sea-level rise buffered by meltwater storage in firn
Observations of firn structure and meltwater retention on the Greenland ice sheet's percolation zone, a region of the ice sheet that is perennially covered by snow and firn, quantify the capacity of the firn to store future surface meltwater and to delay expansion of the area contributing to sea-level rise.
- J. Harper
- , N. Humphrey
- & X. Fettweis
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Letter |
Lower satellite-gravimetry estimates of Antarctic sea-level contribution
A new model of glacial isostatic adjustment used in conjunction with GRACE satellite data suggests that ice loss from Antarctica is contributing 0.19 millimetres per year to global mean sea level, which is substantially less than previous GRACE-based estimates.
- Matt A. King
- , Rory J. Bingham
- & Glenn A. Milne
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Letter |
Sulphate–climate coupling over the past 300,000 years in inland Antarctica
Profiles of sulphate fluxes over the past 300,000 years from an Antarctic ice core show that, whereas the flux of sulphate-adhered dust has remained almost constant, that of sulphate salts correlates inversely with temperature, suggesting a coupling between particulate sulphur and temperature.
- Yoshinori Iizuka
- , Ryu Uemura
- & Takeo Hondoh
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Letter |
Delayed build-up of Arctic ice sheets during 400,000-year minima in insolation variability
An East Asian winter monsoon proxy record using grain size variations in Chinese loess over the past 900,000 years shows that for up to 20,000 years after the interglacials at 400,000-year intervals, the weak monsoon winds maintain a mild, non-glacial climate at high northern latitudes.
- Qingzhen Hao
- , Luo Wang
- & Zhengtang Guo
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Research Highlights |
Arctic snow lost faster than ice
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Books & Arts |
Q&A: Archivist of ice
For six years, photographer James Balog has trained his lens on ice, capturing time-lapse images that have helped scientists to study how glaciers and ice sheets respond to climate conditions. With the documentary Chasing Ice soon to debut in US cinemas, Balog talks about the loss of landscapes.
- Jascha Hoffman
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News |
Ice loss shifts Arctic cycles
Record shrinkage confounds models and portends atmospheric and ecological change.
- Quirin Schiermeier
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Research Highlights |
Melting triggers more melting
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News & Views |
Himalayan glaciers in the balance
A measurement by satellite altimetry shows the Himalayan glaciers to be losing mass at only moderate rates, but raises broader questions about other methods for estimating mass balance. See Letter p.495
- J. Graham Cogley
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Research Highlights |
Why Antarctica is melting
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Research Highlights |
Greenland glacier map
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Research Highlights |
Lost photos reveal glacier shifts
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Research Highlights |
A check on speeding glaciers
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News |
Witnessing a glacier's race to the sea
Video of retreating Alaskan ice is helping to quantify glacial contribution to sea-level rise.
- Hannah Hoag
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News |
Renegade glaciers gain ice
Despite a warming climate, some glaciers in southern Asia are holding their own.
- Sid Perkins
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News |
Glaciologists to target third pole
High-tech stations on track to monitor third-largest ice store.
- Jane Qiu
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Books & Arts |
Polar research: Deep-frozen science
Francis Halzen is exhilarated by a trek through stories of research and exploration in Antarctica.
- Francis Halzen
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Letter |
Collapse of polar ice sheets during the stage 11 interglacial
The magnitude of sea level rise during marine isotope stage 11 (about 400,000 years ago) is shown to have been probably only 6 to 13 metres, in contrast to some earlier estimates of up to 20 metres.
- Maureen E. Raymo
- & Jerry X. Mitrovica
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Letter |
Recent contributions of glaciers and ice caps to sea level rise
Satellite measurements of Earth’s gravity field show that the mass loss of glaciers and ice caps contributed to sea level rise by approximately 0.4 millimetres per year between 2003 and 2010.
- Thomas Jacob
- , John Wahr
- & Sean Swenson
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News |
Taking the pulse of a shrinking glacier
Scientists in Chile hike over plains of snow to recover valuable data.
- Patricio Segura Ortiz
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Books & Arts |
Books in brief
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News |
Greenland ice-melt map gets the cold shoulder
Polar researchers mobilize to clear up atlas's icesheet error.
- Lucas Laursen
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News |
Canada's ice cores seek new home
Confusion over fate of valuable climate record chills researchers.
- Hannah Hoag
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News Q&A |
A distant stake in the third pole
Iceland offers China advice on polar cooperation.
- Jane Qiu
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News & Views |
Past ice-shelf collapse in West Antarctica
Images of the sea floor in Pine Island Bay, West Antarctica, reveal impressive evidence that a massive ice-shelf break-up occurred before about 12,000 years ago, and point to a tidal influence on sea-floor features produced during deglaciation.
- Colm Ó Cofaigh
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Research Highlights |
Glacier modelling can reduce risks
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Letter |
Irregular tropical glacier retreat over the Holocene epoch driven by progressive warming
- Vincent Jomelli
- , Myriam Khodri
- & Mathias Vuille
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News & Views |
Ancient Antarctic fjords
The East Antarctic ice sheet, the largest in the world, lies seemingly frozen in time. Discovery of a rugged landscape buried beneath the thick ice provides evidence of a more dynamic past. See Letter p.72
- Sandra Passchier
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Letter |
A dynamic early East Antarctic Ice Sheet suggested by ice-covered fjord landscapes
- Duncan A. Young
- , Andrew P. Wright
- & Martin J. Siegert
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Research Highlights |
Glacial biography of Greenland
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News |
The IceMole cometh
Novel design could help probe explore frozen environs on Earth and beyond.
- Adam Mann