Atmospheric extremes caused high oceanward sea surface slope triggering the biggest calving event in more than 50 years at the Amery Ice Shelf

Francis, Diana; Mattingly, Kyle S.; Lhermitte, Stef; Temimi, Marouane; Heil, Petra

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-2147-2021

Articles | Volume 15, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-2147-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-2147-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 5

Research article

| Highlight paper

|

05 May 2021

Research article | Highlight paper |

| 05 May 2021

Atmospheric extremes caused high oceanward sea surface slope triggering the biggest calving event in more than 50 years at the Amery Ice Shelf

Diana Francis, Kyle S. Mattingly, Stef Lhermitte, Marouane Temimi, and Petra Heil

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Final revised paper (published on 05 May 2021)
Preprint (discussion started on 19 Aug 2020)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'Review of tc-2020-219', Anonymous Referee #1, 12 Sep 2020
- AC1: 'Response to Referee 1 comments', Diana Francis, 13 Nov 2020
RC2: 'Please consider the effects of storm and tide-driven ocean slope on calving.', Ted Scambos, 30 Sep 2020
- AC2: 'Response to Referee 2 comments', Diana Francis, 13 Nov 2020

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by editor and referees) (23 Nov 2020) by Nicolas Jourdain

AR by Diana Francis on behalf of the Authors (30 Jan 2021) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (17 Feb 2021) by Nicolas Jourdain

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (17 Feb 2021)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (01 Mar 2021) by Nicolas Jourdain

AR by Diana Francis on behalf of the Authors (01 Mar 2021) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (01 Mar 2021) by Nicolas Jourdain

AR by Diana Francis on behalf of the Authors (09 Mar 2021) Manuscript

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Short summary

The unexpected September 2019 calving event from the Amery Ice Shelf, the largest since 1963 and which occurred almost a decade earlier than expected, was triggered by atmospheric extremes. Explosive twin polar cyclones provided a deterministic role in this event by creating oceanward sea surface slope triggering the calving. The observed record-anomalous atmospheric conditions were promoted by blocking ridges and Antarctic-wide anomalous poleward transport of heat and moisture.