Antarctic Ice Sheet Gains Record 695 Billion Tons as Tropical Warming Drives East Antarctic Snowfall
Updated
Updated · SciTechDaily · Sep 4
Antarctic Ice Sheet Gains Record 695 Billion Tons as Tropical Warming Drives East Antarctic Snowfall
1 articles · Updated · SciTechDaily · Sep 4
Summary
Between 2021 and 2023, the Antarctic Ice Sheet added about 695 billion tons of mass—the biggest gain seen in GRACE satellite records—driven by persistent heavy snowfall in East Antarctica.
Nature study findings tied that surge to sustained warming in the tropical western Pacific and eastern Indian Ocean, which reshaped circulation and funneled more moisture and atmospheric rivers toward Queen Mary Land-Wilkes Land.
Water-vapor tracking and circulation experiments identified the tropical warm pool as the direct driver, while anthropogenic forcing explained only 9% of the observed regional snowfall anomaly.
The gain was temporary: over the past two decades Antarctica still lost ice at an average 140.5 billion tons a year, with West Antarctica continuing to shrink and some East Antarctic glaciers still threatened by warm ocean waters.
Researchers said similar tropical warm-pool warming episodes occur roughly once a decade, suggesting a recurring teleconnection that can sway East Antarctic snowfall without overturning the continent's long-term mass-loss trend.