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Temporal Trends In West Antarctic Accumulation Rates: Evidence From Observed And Simulated Records, Landon Kelly Burgener

Theses and Dissertations

Reconstructed snow accumulation rate observations from five new firn cores show a statistically significant negative trend in accumulation rates over the past four decades across the central West Antarctic ice sheet. A negative temporal trend in accumulation is unexpected in light of rising surface temperatures and simulations run by GCMs. Both the magnitude of the mean accumulation rates and the range of interannual variability observed in the new records compares favorably to older records, suggesting that the new accumulation rate records may serve as a regional proxy for recent temporal trends in West Antarctic accumulation rates. The observed negative trend …