The Cryosphere
The Cryosphere
TC
Articles | Volume 13, issue 1
Articles | Volume 13, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-281-2019
© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-281-2019
© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 13, issue 1
Research article
 | 
29 Jan 2019
Research article |  | 29 Jan 2019

Estimation of the Antarctic surface mass balance using the regional climate model MAR (1979–2015) and identification of dominant processes

Cécile Agosta, Charles Amory, Christoph Kittel, Anais Orsi, Vincent Favier, Hubert Gallée, Michiel R. van den Broeke, Jan T. M. Lenaerts, Jan Melchior van Wessem, Willem Jan van de Berg, and Xavier Fettweis

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-281-2019-supplement

Data sets

Antarctic surface mass balance with the regional climate model MAR (1979--2015) C. Agosta and X. Fettweis https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2547638

Agosta et al. (2019), The Cryosphere: data processing, analyses and figures C. Agosta https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2548848

MERRA-2 inst6_3d_ana_Nv: 3d,6-Hourly, Instantaneous, Model-Level, Analysis, Analyzed Meteorological Fields V5.12.4 Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) https://doi.org/10.5067/IUUF4WB9FT4W

JRA-55: Japanese 55-year Reanalysis, Daily 3-Hourly and 6-Hourly Data Japan Meteorological Agency https://doi.org/10.5065/D6HH6H41

ERA-Interim Project, Research Data Archive at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Computational and Information Systems Laboratory ECMWF https://doi.org/10.5065/D6CR5RD9

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Short summary
Antarctic surface mass balance (ASMB), a component of the sea level budget, is commonly estimated through modelling as observations are scarce. The polar-oriented regional climate model MAR performs well in simulating the observed ASMB. MAR and RACMO2 share common biases we relate to drifting snow transport, with a 3 times larger magnitude than in previous estimates. Sublimation of precipitation in the katabatic layer modelled by MAR is of a magnitude similar to an observation-based estimate.
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