Persistent Supercooled Drizzle at Temperatures below -25°C Observed at McMurdo Station, Antarctica.

The rarity of reports in the literature of brief and spatially limited observations of drizzle at temperatures below -20°C suggest that riming and other temperature-dependent cloud microphysical processes such as heterogeneous ice nucleation and ice crystal depositional growth prevent drizzle persistence in cold environments. In this study, we report on a persistent drizzle event observed by ground-based remote-sensing measurements at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. The temperatures in the drizzle-producing cloud were below -25°C and the drizzle persisted for a period exceeding 7.

January 2016 extensive summer melt in West Antarctica favoured by strong El Niño.

Over the past two decades the primary driver of mass loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) has been warm ocean water underneath coastal ice shelves, not a warmer atmosphere. Yet, surface melt occurs sporadically over low-lying areas of the WAIS and is not fully understood. Here we report on an episode of extensive and prolonged surface melting observed in the Ross Sea sector of the WAIS in January 2016.