Articles | Volume 11, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-949-2017
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-949-2017
Research article
 | 
18 Apr 2017
Research article |  | 18 Apr 2017

How accurate are estimates of glacier ice thickness? Results from ITMIX, the Ice Thickness Models Intercomparison eXperiment

Daniel Farinotti, Douglas J. Brinkerhoff, Garry K. C. Clarke, Johannes J. Fürst, Holger Frey, Prateek Gantayat, Fabien Gillet-Chaulet, Claire Girard, Matthias Huss, Paul W. Leclercq, Andreas Linsbauer, Horst Machguth, Carlos Martin, Fabien Maussion, Mathieu Morlighem, Cyrille Mosbeux, Ankur Pandit, Andrea Portmann, Antoine Rabatel, RAAJ Ramsankaran, Thomas J. Reerink, Olivier Sanchez, Peter A. Stentoft, Sangita Singh Kumari, Ward J. J. van Pelt, Brian Anderson, Toby Benham, Daniel Binder, Julian A. Dowdeswell, Andrea Fischer, Kay Helfricht, Stanislav Kutuzov, Ivan Lavrentiev, Robert McNabb, G. Hilmar Gudmundsson, Huilin Li, and Liss M. Andreassen

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Cited articles

Anderson, B. M., Mackintosh, A. N., Stumm, D., George, L., Kerr, T., Winter-Billington, A., and Fitzsimons, S. J.: Climate sensitivity of a high-precipitation glacier in New Zealand, J. Glaciol., 56, 114–128, https://doi.org/10.3189/002214310791190929, 2010.
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Andreassen, L. M., Paul, F., Kääb, A., and Hausberg, J. E.: Landsat-derived glacier inventory for Jotunheimen, Norway, and deduced glacier changes since the 1930s, The Cryosphere, 2, 131–145, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2-131-2008, 2008.
Andreassen, L. M., Huss, M., Melvold, K., Elvehøy, H., and Winsvold, S. H.: Ice thickness measurements and volume estimates for glaciers in Norway, J. Glaciol., 61, 763–775, https://doi.org/10.3189/2015JoG14J161, 2015.
Andreassen, L. M., Elvehøy, H., Kjøllmoen, B., and Engeset, R. V.: Reanalysis of long-term series of glaciological and geodetic mass balance for 10 Norwegian glaciers, The Cryosphere, 10, 535–552, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-535-2016, 2016.
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Short summary
ITMIX – the Ice Thickness Models Intercomparison eXperiment – was the first coordinated performance assessment for models inferring glacier ice thickness from surface characteristics. Considering 17 different models and 21 different test cases, we show that although solutions of individual models can differ considerably, an ensemble average can yield uncertainties in the order of 10 ± 24 % the mean ice thickness. Ways forward for improving such estimates are sketched.
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