[A-CG37] Satellite Earth Environment Observation

[ACG37-P21] Seasonal variation in blowing snow frequency at site NDF in the western region of East Antarctica

*Konosuke Sugiura¹, Naohiko Hirasawa² (1.School of Sustainable Design, University of Toyama, 2.National Institute of Polar Research)

Keywords:ICESat-2, AWS, blowing snow, surface mass balance

According to the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, although a decrease in the overall mass of the Antarctic ice sheet has been reported since the 1990s, only the western region of East Antarctica has reported an increase in mass since the mid-2000s, with the timing of extreme precipitation events. The mass increase and future changes in East Antarctica are of great interest because changes in the mass of the Antarctic ice sheet affect sea level rise. In the western region of East Antarctica, four Automatic Weather Stations (AWSs) have been installed by the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition along the elevation gradient. In this study, we focus on blowing snow process that affects the mass balance of the ice sheet surface in the western region of East Antarctica, where mass gain has been reported. Blowing snow plays a role in redistributing snow once accumulated, and it is not yet clear how extreme snowfalls will be redistributed. In this study, we first calculated the amount of blowing snow using data from an AWS installed near the top of the ice sheet and examined the seasonal variation of blowing snow occurrence using ICESat-2 data (ATL17, Version 4), as part of our efforts to understand the effect of the blowing snow process on the surface mass balance of the ice sheet in the western region of East Antarctica. As a result, the AWS data from January to December 2022 yielded a seasonal variation with a peak of the blowing snow amount in winter JJA. The frequency of blowing snow in ICESat-2 data from November 2018 to July 2022 at the same location was analyzed and was synchronized with the seasonal variation in the blowing snow amount calculated from the AWS data. We plan to further compare the results with past AWS data, and to analyze AWS data from other stations in the western region of East Antarctica.