Fig. 3: Surface snowmelt and precipitation over AP during the February 2022 hot spell.

Accumulated a snowfall, b rainfall, and c surface snowmelt during the duration of the event 6–9 February 2022 (all based on MAR). d Snowmelt maximum extent during the 6–9 February 2022 period defined as wet/dry/not-assigned (NA) snow status derived from microwave satellite observations brightness temperatures⁷⁷ compared with the maximum melt extent from MAR (black line) and ERA5 (orange line). e Time series of maximum daily extent of snowmelt during February derived from satellite observations (red), MAR (blue) and ERA5-Land (green). MAR and ERA5-Land show the maximum melt extent using two different thresholds, >0.1 mm w.e. day⁻¹ (dotted line) and >1 mm w.e. day⁻¹ (solid line), while satellite observations (AMSR-E and AMSR-2), show the ascending (local afternoon) and descending (local midnight) overpasses (solid and dashed lines, respectively). f Daily accumulated snowmelt (left axis: mm w.e., right axis: Gt) averaged over the AP during February 2022 (red solid line) compared to the February 2020 values (red dashed), as well as the total range (min to max) (black dotted) during 1980–2021 (based on MAR). g, h same as (f) but for rainfall and snowfall, respectively (based on MAR). The ice shelf edges are based on ref. ⁸⁶.