Antarctic grounding line mapping from differential satellite radar interferometry
TLDR
In this article, the authors presented 15 years of comprehensive, high-resolution mapping of grounding lines in Antarctica using differential satellite synthetic-aperture radar interferometry (DInSAR) data from the Earth Remote Sensing Satellites 1-2 (ERS-1/2), RADARSAT-1 and 2, and the Advanced Land Observing System (ALOS) PALSAR for years 1994 to 2009.Abstract:
[1] The delineation of an ice sheet grounding line, i.e., the transition boundary where ice detaches from the bed and becomes afloat in the ocean, is critical to ice sheet mass budget calculations, numerical modeling of ice sheet dynamics, ice-ocean interactions, oceanic tides, and subglacial environments. Here, we present 15 years of comprehensive, high-resolution mapping of grounding lines in Antarctica using differential satellite synthetic-aperture radar interferometry (DInSAR) data from the Earth Remote Sensing Satellites 1–2 (ERS-1/2), RADARSAT-1 and 2, and the Advanced Land Observing System (ALOS) PALSAR for years 1994 to 2009. DInSAR directly measures the vertical motion of floating ice shelves in response to tidal oceanic forcing with millimeter precision, at a sample spacing better than 50 m, simultaneously over areas several 100 km wide; in contrast with earlier methods that detect abrupt changes in surface slope in satellite visible imagery or altimetry data. On stagnant and slow-moving areas, we find that breaks in surface slope are reliable indicators of grounding lines; but on most fast-moving glaciers and ice streams, our DInSAR results reveal that prior mappings have positioning errors ranging from a few km to over 100 km. A better agreement is found with ICESat's data, also based on measurements of vertical motion, but with a detection noise one order of magnitude larger than with DInSAR. Overall, the DInSAR mapping of Antarctic grounding lines completely redefines the coastline of Antarctica.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
Bedmap2: improved ice bed, surface and thickness datasets for Antarctica
Peter T. Fretwell,Hamish D. Pritchard,David G. Vaughan,Jonathan L. Bamber,Nicholas E. Barrand,Ruth Bell,Cesidio Bianchi,Robert Bingham,Donald D. Blankenship,Gino Casassa,Ginny A. Catania,Denis Callens,Howard Conway,Alison J. Cook,Hugh F. J. Corr,Detlef Damaske,Volkmar Damm,Fausto Ferraccioli,René Forsberg,Shuji Fujita,Y. Gim,Prasad Gogineni,J. A. Griggs,Richard C. A. Hindmarsh,Per Holmlund,John W. Holt,Robert W. Jacobel,Adrian Jenkins,Wilfried Jokat,Tom A. Jordan,Edward C. King,Jack Kohler,William B. Krabill,M. Riger-Kusk,Kirsty Langley,German Leitchenkov,Carl Leuschen,Bruce P. Luyendyk,Kenichi Matsuoka,Jeremie Mouginot,F. O. Nitsche,Yoshifumi Nogi,Ole Anders Nøst,S. V. Popov,Eric Rignot,David M. Rippin,Andrés Rivera,Jason L. Roberts,Neil Ross,Martin J. Siegert,Andrew Smith,Daniel Steinhage,Michael Studinger,Bo Sun,B. K. Tinto,Brian C. Welch,Douglas S. Wilson,Duncan A. Young,Cui Xiangbin,Achille Zirizzotti +59 more
TL;DR: Bedmap2 as discussed by the authors is a suite of gridded products describing surface elevation, ice-thickness and the seafloor and subglacial bed elevation of the Antarctic south of 60° S. In particular, the Bedmap2 ice thickness grid is made from 25 million measurements, over two orders of magnitude more than were used in Bedmap1.
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
Ice-Shelf Melting Around Antarctica
TL;DR: Detailed glaciological estimates of ice-shelf melting around the entire continent of Antarctica show that basal melting accounts for as much mass loss as does calving, making ice- shelf melting the largest ablation process in Antarctica.
Journal ArticleDOI
Ice Flow of the Antarctic Ice Sheet
TL;DR: A reference, comprehensive, high-resolution, digital mosaic of ice motion in Antarctica assembled from multiple satellite interferometric synthetic-aperture radar data acquired during the International Polar Year 2007 to 2009 reveals widespread, patterned, enhanced flow with tributary glaciers reaching hundreds to thousands of kilometers inland over the entire continent.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Recent Antarctic ice mass loss from radar interferometry and regional climate modelling
Eric Rignot,Eric Rignot,Eric Rignot,Jonathan L. Bamber,Michiel R. van den Broeke,Curt H. Davis,Yonghong Li,Willem Jan van de Berg,Erik van Meijgaard +8 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors estimate that East Antarctica is close to a balanced mass budget, but large losses of ice occur in the narrow outlet channels of West Antarctic glaciers and at the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula.
Journal ArticleDOI
Satellite Radar Interferometry for Monitoring Ice Sheet Motion: Application to an Antarctic Ice Stream
TL;DR: The combined use of SRI and other satellite methods is expected to provide data that will enhance the understanding of ice stream mechanics and help make possible the prediction of ice sheet behavior.
Journal ArticleDOI
Rapid Bottom Melting Widespread near Antarctic Ice Sheet Grounding Lines
Eric Rignot,Stanley S. Jacobs +1 more
TL;DR: Results obtained with satellite radar interferometry reveal that bottom melt rates experienced by large outlet glaciers near their grounding lines are far higher than generally assumed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Fast Recession of a West Antarctic Glacier
TL;DR: Satellite radar interferometry observations of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica, reveal that the glacier hinge-line position retreated 1.2 +/-0.3 kilometers per year between 1992 and 1996, which in turn implies that the ice thinned by 3.5 +/- 0.9 meters per year.
Journal ArticleDOI
A new 1 km digital elevation model of the Antarctic derived from combined satellite radar and laser data – Part 1: Data and methods
TL;DR: In this paper, a digital elevation model (DEM) of the whole of Antarctica has been derived from satellite radar altimetry (SRA) and limited terrestrial data, and the optimum resolution for producing a DEM based on a trade-off between resolution and interpolated cells was found to be 1 km.
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