Contribution of blowing-snow sublimation to the surface mass balance of Antarctica

Gadde, Srinidhi; van de Berg, Willem Jan

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-4933-2024

Articles | Volume 18, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-4933-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-4933-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 11

Research article

|

02 Nov 2024

Research article |

| 02 Nov 2024

Contribution of blowing-snow sublimation to the surface mass balance of Antarctica

Srinidhi Gadde and Willem Jan van de Berg

Data sets

Monthly accumulated sublimation and yearly accumulated surface mass balance (SMB) components RACMO model simulations for Antarctica on 27km grid for 2000-2012 Srinidhi Gadde and Willem Jan van de Berg https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12509004

A drifting snow data set (2010-2018) from coastal Adelie Land, Eastern Antarctica Charles Amory et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3630497

Reproducibility dataset for CRYOWRF validation F. Gerber et al. https://doi.org/10.16904/envidat.347

Short summary

Blowing-snow sublimation is the major loss term in the mass balance of Antarctica. In this study we update the blowing-snow representation in the Regional Atmospheric Climate Model (RACMO). With the updates, results compare well with observations from East Antarctica. Also, the continent-wide variation of blowing snow compares well with satellite observations. Hence, the updates provide a clear step forward in producing a physically sound and reliable estimate of the mass balance of Antarctica.