Articles | Volume 11, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-669-2017
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-669-2017
Research article
 | 
02 Mar 2017
Research article |  | 02 Mar 2017

Liquid water content in ice estimated through a full-depth ground radar profile and borehole measurements in western Greenland

Joel Brown, Joel Harper, and Neil Humphrey

Data sets

Temperature distribution and thermal anomalies along a flowline of the Greenland ice sheet J. A. Harrington, N. F. Humphrey, and J. T. Harper https://doi.org/10.3189/2015AoG70A945

Model code and software

Raybased inversion code C. Zelt http://terra.rice.edu/department/faculty/zelt/rayinvr.html

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Short summary
We use ground-penetrating radar surveys in conjunction with borehole depth and temperature data to estimate the liquid water content (wetness) of glacial ice in the ablation zone of an outlet glacier on the western side of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Our results show that the wetness of a warm basal ice layer is approximately 2.9 % to 4.6 % in our study region. This high level of wetness requires special attention when modelling ice dynamics or estimating ice thickness in the region.