Variability in ice shelf basal melting in the Amundsen Sea Embayment from 2019 to 2023

The Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) of West Antarctica is one of the most crucial regions for understanding current ice-sheet mass loss and its impact on global sea-level rise. Past observations have revealed rapid thinning of ice shelves, driven primarily by ocean-induced basal melting of their undersides. These processes weaken the shelves’ buttressing effect, potentially accelerating inland ice discharge, and raising concerns about marine ice-sheet instability. Despite recent advances in multi-mission satellite altimetry, gaps remain in quantifying the most recent basal melt trends at high spatial resolution and over shorter timescales. Here, we present a 5 year (2019–2023) time series of ice-shelf basal melting across major glaciers in the ASE, using new laser altimetry data from the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2). Our results reveal pronounced spatial melt patterns and substantial temporal variability in basal melt rates, highlighting a clear temporal coherence linked to El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phase transitions and associated atmospheric drivers. Furthermore, regional geometry significantly influences local variability in melt trends, underscoring the necessity of incorporating detailed bathymetric and climatic factors into predictive ice–ocean models. These ICESat-2—derived melt-rate estimates provide an up-to-date assessment of basal melting in the ASE and reinforce the urgent need to refine coupled ice–ocean models. By improving our knowledge of recent melt-rate variability, this study contributes to more reliable projections of future ice-shelf stability and sea-level rise, thereby underscoring the key role of high-resolution satellite altimetry in monitoring one of Earth’s most vulnerable ice-sheet sectors

Basal (medicine · Cryosphere · Ice shelf · Sea ice · Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics · Cryospheric studies and observations · Environmental Science · Winter Sports Injuries and Performance · Geology · Internal Medicine · Oceanography

• Contribution of the deepened Amundsen sea low to the record low Antarctic sea ice extent in February 2022

  Open Access•Shaoyin Wang, Jiping Liu et al.•Environmental Research Letters•2023

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