Antarctic shelf ocean warming and sea ice melt affected by projected El Niño changes

Cai, W., Jia, F., Li, S., Purich, A., Wang, G., Wu, L., Gan, B., Santoso, A., Geng, T., Ng, B., Yang, Y., Ferreira, D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3243-9774, Meehl, G. A. and McPhaden, M. (2023) Antarctic shelf ocean warming and sea ice melt affected by projected El Niño changes. Nature Climate Change, 13. pp. 235-239. ISSN 1758-678X doi: 10.1038/s41558-023-01610-x

Abstract/Summary

Antarctic shelf ocean warming affects melt of ice shelf/sheets and sea ice but projected changes vary vastly across climate models. A projected increase in El Niño variability has been found to slow future mid-latitude Southern Ocean warming but how this impacts the Antarctic shelf ocean is unknown. Here, we show that a projected increase in El Niño variability accelerates Antarctic shelf ocean warming, hastening ice shelf/sheet melt but slowing sea ice reduction.