The Cryosphere
The Cryosphere
The Cryosphere
Articles | Volume 12, issue 9
Articles | Volume 12, issue 9
The Cryosphere, 12, 2869–2882, 2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2869-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
The Cryosphere, 12, 2869–2882, 2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2869-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 12, issue 9

Research article 06 Sep 2018

Research article | 06 Sep 2018

Seasonal dynamics of Totten Ice Shelf controlled by sea ice buttressing

Chad A. Greene et al.

Data sets

Images of Antarctic Ice Shelves, MODIS channel 2. National Snow and Ice Data Center T.~Scambos, J. Bohlander, and B. Raup https://doi.org/10.7265/N5NC5Z4N

Global Land Ice Velocity Extraction from Landsat 8 (GoLIVE), Version 1.1 T.~Scambos, M. Fahnestock, A. Gardner, and M. Klinger https://doi.org/10.7265/N5ZP442B

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Short summary
We show that Totten Ice Shelf accelerates each spring in response to the breakup of seasonal landfast sea ice at the ice shelf calving front. The previously unreported seasonal flow variability may have aliased measurements in at least one previous study of Totten's response to ocean forcing on interannual timescales. The role of sea ice in buttressing the flow of the ice shelf implies that long-term changes in sea ice cover could have impacts on the mass balance of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.
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