An inventory of active subglacial lakes in Antarctica detected by ICESat (2003-2008)
TLDR
In this paper, the authors presented the first comprehensive study of active lakes for the Antarctic ice sheet north of 868 S, based on 4.5 years (2003-08) of NASA's ICESat laser altimeter data.Abstract:
Through the detection of surface deformation in response to water movement, recent satellite studies have demonstrated the existence of subglacial lakes in Antarctica that fill and drain on timescales of months to years. These studies, however, were confined to specific regions of the ice sheet. Here we present the first comprehensive study of these 'active' lakes for the Antarctic ice sheet north of 868 S, based on 4.5 years (2003-08) of NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) laser altimeter data. Our analysis has detected 124 lakes that were active during this period, and we estimate volume changes for each lake. The ICESat-detected lakes are prevalent in coastal Antarctica, and are present under most of the largest ice-stream catchments. Lakes sometimes appear to transfer water from one to another, but also often exchange water with distributed sources undetectable by ICESat, suggesting that the lakes may provide water to or withdraw water from the hydrologic systems that lubricate glacier flow. Thus, these reservoirs may contribute pulses of water to produce rapid temporal changes in glacier speeds, but also may withdraw water at other times to slow flow.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
A reconciled estimate of ice-sheet mass balance
Andrew Shepherd,Erik R. Ivins,Geruo A,Valentina R. Barletta,Michael J. Bentley,Srinivas Bettadpur,Kate Briggs,David H. Bromwich,René Forsberg,Natalia Galin,Martin Horwath,S. S. Jacobs,Ian Joughin,Matt A. King,Matt A. King,Jan T. M. Lenaerts,Jilu Li,Stefan R. M. Ligtenberg,Adrian Luckman,Scott B. Luthcke,Malcolm McMillan,Rakia Meister,Glenn A. Milne,Jeremie Mouginot,Alan Muir,Julien P. Nicolas,John Paden,Antony J. Payne,Hamish D. Pritchard,Eric Rignot,Eric Rignot,Helmut Rott,Louise Sandberg Sørensen,Ted Scambos,Bernd Scheuchl,Ernst Schrama,Ben Smith,Aud Venke Sundal,Jan H. van Angelen,Willem Jan van de Berg,Michiel R. van den Broeke,David G. Vaughan,Isabella Velicogna,Isabella Velicogna,John Wahr,Pippa L. Whitehouse,Duncan J. Wingham,Donghui Yi,Duncan A. Young,H. Jay Zwally +49 more
TL;DR: There is good agreement between different satellite methods—especially in Greenland and West Antarctica—and that combining satellite data sets leads to greater certainty, and the mass balance of Earth’s polar ice sheets is estimated by combining the results of existing independent techniques.
Supplementary Materials for A Reconciled Estimate of Ice-Sheet Mass Balance
Andrew Shepherd,Erik R. Ivins,Geruo A,Valentina R. Barletta,Michael J. Bentley,Srinivas Bettadpur,Kate Briggs,David H. Bromwich,René Forsberg,Natalia Galin,Martin Horwath,Stan Jacobs,Ian Joughin,Matt A. King,Jan T. M. Lenaerts,Jilu Li,Stefan R. M. Ligtenberg,Adrian Luckman,Scott B. Luthcke,Malcolm McMillan,Glenn A. Milne,Jeremie Mouginot,Alan Muir,Julien Nicolas,John Paden,A. J. Payne,Hamish D. Pritchard,Eric Rignot,Helmut Rott,Ted Scambos,Bernd Scheuchl,Ernst Schrama,Ben Smith,Jan H. van Angelen,Willem Jan van de Berg,Michiel van den Broeke,Isabella Velicogna,John Wahr,Pippa L. Whitehouse,Duncan J. Wingham,Donghui Yi,Duncan Young,H. Jay Zwally +42 more
Journal ArticleDOI
The Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2): Science requirements, concept, and implementation
Thorsten Markus,Thomas Neumann,Anthony J. Martino,Waleed Abdalati,Kelly M. Brunt,Beata Csatho,Sinead L. Farrell,Helen A. Fricker,Alex S. Gardner,David J. Harding,Michael F. Jasinski,Ron Kwok,Lori A. Magruder,Dan Lubin,Scott B. Luthcke,James H. Morison,Ross Nelson,Amy L. Neuenschwander,Stephen P. Palm,Sorin C. Popescu,C. K. Shum,Bob E. Schutz,Benjamin Smith,Yuekui Yang,Yuekui Yang,Jay Zwally +25 more
TL;DR: The ICESat-2 mission is a follow-on to the ICES-1 mission with three pairs of beams, each pair separated by about 3 km cross-track with a pair spacing of 90 m as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI
Convection-driven melting near the grounding lines of ice shelves and tidewater glaciers
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the theory of buoyant plumes that has previously been applied to the study of the larger-scale circulation beneath ice shelves to investigate variability in melting induced by changes in both ocean temperature and subglacial discharge for a number of realistic examples of ice shelves and tidewater glaciers.
Journal ArticleDOI
Elevation and elevation change of Greenland and Antarctica derived from CryoSat-2
TL;DR: In this paper, the present-day surface elevation of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets was studied based on 3 years of CryoSat-2 data acquisition and derived new elevation models (DEMs) as well as elevation change maps and volume change estimates for both ice sheets.
References
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Surface melt-induced acceleration of Greenland ice-sheet flow
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TL;DR: The near coincidence of the ice acceleration with the duration of surface melting, followed by deceleration after the melting ceases, indicates that glacial sliding is enhanced by rapid migration of surface meltwater to the ice-bedrock interface.
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BEDMAP: a new ice thickness and subglacial topographic model of Antarctica
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Journal ArticleDOI
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TL;DR: The behavior of the glacier in surge has many remarkable features, which can provide clues to a detailed theory of the surging process and is akin to a proposed mechanism of overthrust faulting.
Journal ArticleDOI
Basal mechanics of Ice Stream B, west Antarctica: 1. Till mechanics
TL;DR: In this paper, the Coulomb-plastic rheology was used to model the subglacial till deformation in the Upstream B camp of West Antarctica, and the results showed that failure strength of this till is strongly dependent on effective stress.
Journal ArticleDOI
An Active Subglacial Water System in West Antarctica Mapped from Space
TL;DR: Satellite laser altimeter elevation profiles from 2003 to 2006 collected over the lower parts of Whillans and Mercer ice streams reveal 14 regions of temporally varying elevation, which are interpreted as the surface expression of subglacial water movement.
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