Articles | Volume 16, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4107-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4107-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
10 Oct 2022
Research article |
| 10 Oct 2022
| 10 Oct 2022
On the evolution of an ice shelf melt channel at the base of Filchner Ice Shelf, from observations and viscoelastic modeling
Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany
Department of Geosciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Julia Christmann
Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany
Hugh F. J. Corr
British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, Cambridge, UK
Veit Helm
Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany
Lea-Sophie Höyns
Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Coen Hofstede
Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany
Ralf Müller
Institute of Applied Mechanics, University of Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern, Germany
Division of Continuum Mechanics, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
Niklas Neckel
Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany
Keith W. Nicholls
British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, Cambridge, UK
Timm Schultz
Institute of Applied Mechanics, University of Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern, Germany
Division of Continuum Mechanics, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
Daniel Steinhage
Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany
Michael Wolovick
Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany
Ole Zeising
Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany
Department of Geosciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Related authors
Steven Franke, Daniel Steinhage, Veit Helm, Tobias Binder, Uwe Nixdorf, Heinrich Miller, Angelika Humbert, Daniela Jansen, Graeme Eagles, Hannes Eisermann, Wilfried Jokat, Antonia Ruppel, Reinhard Drews, Alexandra Zuhr, Amelie Driemel, Andreas Walter, Peter Konopatzky, Robin Heß, Antonie Haas, Roland Koppe, Pascal H. Andreas, and Olaf Eisen
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5328, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5328, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for The Cryosphere (TC).
Short summary
Short summary
This review synthesizes 30 years of AWI’s airborne radar research in Antarctica and Greenland, detailing six radar systems and their applications in studying ice dynamics, basal properties, and subglacial landscapes. It highlights scientific breakthroughs—from mapping ancient buried terrains to improving ice-sheet models—and introduces the public release of AWI’s radar datasets via the Radar Data Viewer and PANGAEA, ensuring FAIR-compliant access for future polar research.
Angelika Humbert, Veit Helm, Ole Zeising, Niklas Neckel, Matthias H. Braun, Shfaqat Abbas Khan, Martin Rückamp, Holger Steeb, Julia Sohn, Matthias Bohnen, and Ralf Müller
The Cryosphere, 19, 3009–3032, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-3009-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-3009-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We study the evolution of a massive lake on the Greenland Ice Sheet using satellite and airborne data and some modelling. The lake is emptying rapidly. Water flows to the glacier's base through cracks and triangular-shaped moulins that remain visible over the years. Some of them become reactivated. We find features inside the glacier that stem from drainage events with a width of even 1 km. These features are persistent over the years, although they are changing in shape.
Daniel Abele, Thomas Kleiner, Yannic Fischler, Benjamin Uekermann, Gerasimos Chourdakis, Mathieu Morlighem, Achim Basermann, Christian Bischof, Hans-Joachim Bungartz, and Angelika Humbert
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3345, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3345, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
For accurate projections of the evolution of continental ice sheets in Greenland and Antartica, interactions between the ice and its environment must be included in simulations. For this purpose, we have implemented adapters for the ice sheet model ISSM and subglacial hydrology model CUAS-MPI for the coupling library preCICE. This simplifies the study of earth systems by allowing the models to interact with each other as well as with models of the oceans or atmosphere with very little effort.
Katrina Lutz, Ilaria Tabone, Angelika Humbert, and Matthias Braun
The Cryosphere, 19, 2601–2614, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2601-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2601-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Supraglacial lakes develop from meltwater collecting on the surface of glaciers. These lakes can drain rapidly, discharging meltwater to the glacier bed. In this study, we assess the spatial and temporal distribution of rapid drainages in Northeast Greenland using optical satellite images. After comparing rapid drainage occurrence with several environmental and geophysical parameters, little indication of the influencing conditions for a rapid drainage was found.
Lea-Sophie Höyns, Thomas Kleiner, Andreas Rademacher, Martin Rückamp, Michael Wolovick, and Angelika Humbert
The Cryosphere, 19, 2133–2158, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2133-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2133-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
The sliding of glaciers over bedrock is influenced by water pressure in the underlying hydrological system and the roughness of the land underneath the glacier. We estimate this roughness through a modeling approach that optimizes this unknown parameter. Additionally, we simulate water pressure, enhancing the reliability of the computed drag at the ice sheet base. The resulting data are provided to other modelers and scientists conducting geophysical field observations.
Torsten Kanzow, Angelika Humbert, Thomas Mölg, Mirko Scheinert, Matthias Braun, Hans Burchard, Francesca Doglioni, Philipp Hochreuther, Martin Horwath, Oliver Huhn, Maria Kappelsberger, Jürgen Kusche, Erik Loebel, Katrina Lutz, Ben Marzeion, Rebecca McPherson, Mahdi Mohammadi-Aragh, Marco Möller, Carolyne Pickler, Markus Reinert, Monika Rhein, Martin Rückamp, Janin Schaffer, Muhammad Shafeeque, Sophie Stolzenberger, Ralph Timmermann, Jenny Turton, Claudia Wekerle, and Ole Zeising
The Cryosphere, 19, 1789–1824, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1789-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1789-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
The Greenland Ice Sheet represents the second-largest contributor to global sea-level rise. We quantify atmosphere, ice and ocean processes related to the mass balance of glaciers in northeast Greenland, focusing on Greenland’s largest floating ice tongue, the 79° N Glacier. We find that together, the different in situ and remote sensing observations and model simulations reveal a consistent picture of a coupled atmosphere–ice sheet–ocean system that has entered a phase of major change.
Katrina Lutz, Lily Bever, Christian Sommer, Thorsten Seehaus, Angelika Humbert, Mirko Scheinert, and Matthias Braun
The Cryosphere, 18, 5431–5449, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-5431-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-5431-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The estimation of the amount of water found within supraglacial lakes is important for understanding how much water is lost from glaciers each year. Here, we develop two new methods for estimating supraglacial lake volume that can be easily applied on a large scale. Furthermore, we compare these methods to two previously developed methods in order to determine when it is best to use each method. Finally, three of these methods are applied to peak melt dates over an area in Northeast Greenland.
Veit Helm, Alireza Dehghanpour, Ronny Hänsch, Erik Loebel, Martin Horwath, and Angelika Humbert
The Cryosphere, 18, 3933–3970, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3933-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3933-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We present a new approach (AWI-ICENet1), based on a deep convolutional neural network, for analysing satellite radar altimeter measurements to accurately determine the surface height of ice sheets. Surface height estimates obtained with AWI-ICENet1 (along with related products, such as ice sheet height change and volume change) show improved and unbiased results compared to other products. This is important for the long-term monitoring of ice sheet mass loss and its impact on sea level rise.
Erik Loebel, Mirko Scheinert, Martin Horwath, Angelika Humbert, Julia Sohn, Konrad Heidler, Charlotte Liebezeit, and Xiao Xiang Zhu
The Cryosphere, 18, 3315–3332, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3315-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3315-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Comprehensive datasets of calving-front changes are essential for studying and modeling outlet glaciers. Current records are limited in temporal resolution due to manual delineation. We use deep learning to automatically delineate calving fronts for 23 glaciers in Greenland. Resulting time series resolve long-term, seasonal, and subseasonal patterns. We discuss the implications of our results and provide the cryosphere community with a data product and an implementation of our processing system.
Niko Schmidt, Angelika Humbert, and Thomas Slawig
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 4943–4959, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-4943-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-4943-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Future sea-level rise is of big significance for coastal regions. The melting and acceleration of glaciers plays a major role in sea-level change. Computer simulation of glaciers costs a lot of computational resources. In this publication, we test a new way of simulating glaciers. This approach produces the same results but has the advantage that it needs much less computation time. As simulations can be obtained with fewer computation resources, higher resolution and physics become affordable.
Ole Zeising, Niklas Neckel, Nils Dörr, Veit Helm, Daniel Steinhage, Ralph Timmermann, and Angelika Humbert
The Cryosphere, 18, 1333–1357, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-1333-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-1333-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The 79° North Glacier in Greenland has experienced significant changes over the last decades. Due to extreme melt rates, the ice has thinned significantly in the vicinity of the grounding line, where a large subglacial channel has formed since 2010. We attribute these changes to warm ocean currents and increased subglacial discharge from surface melt. However, basal melting has decreased since 2018, indicating colder water inflow into the cavity below the glacier.
Hélène Seroussi, Vincent Verjans, Sophie Nowicki, Antony J. Payne, Heiko Goelzer, William H. Lipscomb, Ayako Abe-Ouchi, Cécile Agosta, Torsten Albrecht, Xylar Asay-Davis, Alice Barthel, Reinhard Calov, Richard Cullather, Christophe Dumas, Benjamin K. Galton-Fenzi, Rupert Gladstone, Nicholas R. Golledge, Jonathan M. Gregory, Ralf Greve, Tore Hattermann, Matthew J. Hoffman, Angelika Humbert, Philippe Huybrechts, Nicolas C. Jourdain, Thomas Kleiner, Eric Larour, Gunter R. Leguy, Daniel P. Lowry, Chistopher M. Little, Mathieu Morlighem, Frank Pattyn, Tyler Pelle, Stephen F. Price, Aurélien Quiquet, Ronja Reese, Nicole-Jeanne Schlegel, Andrew Shepherd, Erika Simon, Robin S. Smith, Fiammetta Straneo, Sainan Sun, Luke D. Trusel, Jonas Van Breedam, Peter Van Katwyk, Roderik S. W. van de Wal, Ricarda Winkelmann, Chen Zhao, Tong Zhang, and Thomas Zwinger
The Cryosphere, 17, 5197–5217, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5197-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5197-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Mass loss from Antarctica is a key contributor to sea level rise over the 21st century, and the associated uncertainty dominates sea level projections. We highlight here the Antarctic glaciers showing the largest changes and quantify the main sources of uncertainty in their future evolution using an ensemble of ice flow models. We show that on top of Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers, Totten and Moscow University glaciers show rapid changes and a strong sensitivity to warmer ocean conditions.
Michael Wolovick, Angelika Humbert, Thomas Kleiner, and Martin Rückamp
The Cryosphere, 17, 5027–5060, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5027-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5027-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The friction underneath ice sheets can be inferred from observed velocity at the top, but this inference requires smoothing. The selection of smoothing has been highly variable in the literature. Here we show how to rigorously select the best smoothing, and we show that the inferred friction converges towards the best knowable field as model resolution improves. We use this to learn about the best description of basal friction and to formulate recommended best practices for other modelers.
Yannic Fischler, Thomas Kleiner, Christian Bischof, Jeremie Schmiedel, Roiy Sayag, Raban Emunds, Lennart Frederik Oestreich, and Angelika Humbert
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 5305–5322, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-5305-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-5305-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Water underneath ice sheets affects the motion of glaciers. This study presents a newly developed code, CUAS-MPI, that simulates subglacial hydrology. It is designed for supercomputers and is hence a parallelized code. We measure the performance of this code for simulations of the entire Greenland Ice Sheet and find that the code works efficiently. Moreover, we validated the code to ensure the correctness of the solution. CUAS-MPI opens new possibilities for simulations of ice sheet hydrology.
Alice C. Frémand, Peter Fretwell, Julien A. Bodart, Hamish D. Pritchard, Alan Aitken, Jonathan L. Bamber, Robin Bell, Cesidio Bianchi, Robert G. Bingham, Donald D. Blankenship, Gino Casassa, Ginny Catania, Knut Christianson, Howard Conway, Hugh F. J. Corr, Xiangbin Cui, Detlef Damaske, Volkmar Damm, Reinhard Drews, Graeme Eagles, Olaf Eisen, Hannes Eisermann, Fausto Ferraccioli, Elena Field, René Forsberg, Steven Franke, Shuji Fujita, Yonggyu Gim, Vikram Goel, Siva Prasad Gogineni, Jamin Greenbaum, Benjamin Hills, Richard C. A. Hindmarsh, Andrew O. Hoffman, Per Holmlund, Nicholas Holschuh, John W. Holt, Annika N. Horlings, Angelika Humbert, Robert W. Jacobel, Daniela Jansen, Adrian Jenkins, Wilfried Jokat, Tom Jordan, Edward King, Jack Kohler, William Krabill, Mette Kusk Gillespie, Kirsty Langley, Joohan Lee, German Leitchenkov, Carlton Leuschen, Bruce Luyendyk, Joseph MacGregor, Emma MacKie, Kenichi Matsuoka, Mathieu Morlighem, Jérémie Mouginot, Frank O. Nitsche, Yoshifumi Nogi, Ole A. Nost, John Paden, Frank Pattyn, Sergey V. Popov, Eric Rignot, David M. Rippin, Andrés Rivera, Jason Roberts, Neil Ross, Anotonia Ruppel, Dustin M. Schroeder, Martin J. Siegert, Andrew M. Smith, Daniel Steinhage, Michael Studinger, Bo Sun, Ignazio Tabacco, Kirsty Tinto, Stefano Urbini, David Vaughan, Brian C. Welch, Douglas S. Wilson, Duncan A. Young, and Achille Zirizzotti
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 2695–2710, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2695-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2695-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents the release of over 60 years of ice thickness, bed elevation, and surface elevation data acquired over Antarctica by the international community. These data are a crucial component of the Antarctic Bedmap initiative which aims to produce a new map and datasets of Antarctic ice thickness and bed topography for the international glaciology and geophysical community.
Angelika Humbert, Veit Helm, Niklas Neckel, Ole Zeising, Martin Rückamp, Shfaqat Abbas Khan, Erik Loebel, Jörg Brauchle, Karsten Stebner, Dietmar Gross, Rabea Sondershaus, and Ralf Müller
The Cryosphere, 17, 2851–2870, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2851-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2851-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The largest floating glacier mass in Greenland, the 79° N Glacier, is showing signs of instability. We investigate how crack formation at the glacier's calving front has changed over the last decades by using satellite imagery and airborne data. The calving front is about to lose contact to stabilizing ice islands. Simulations show that the glacier will accelerate as a result of this, leading to an increase in ice discharge of more than 5.1 % if its calving front retreats by 46 %.
Michael J. Bentley, James A. Smith, Stewart S. R. Jamieson, Margaret R. Lindeman, Brice R. Rea, Angelika Humbert, Timothy P. Lane, Christopher M. Darvill, Jeremy M. Lloyd, Fiamma Straneo, Veit Helm, and David H. Roberts
The Cryosphere, 17, 1821–1837, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1821-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1821-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The Northeast Greenland Ice Stream is a major outlet of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Some of its outlet glaciers and ice shelves have been breaking up and retreating, with inflows of warm ocean water identified as the likely reason. Here we report direct measurements of warm ocean water in an unusual lake that is connected to the ocean beneath the ice shelf in front of the 79° N Glacier. This glacier has not yet shown much retreat, but the presence of warm water makes future retreat more likely.
Ole Zeising, Tamara Annina Gerber, Olaf Eisen, M. Reza Ershadi, Nicolas Stoll, Ilka Weikusat, and Angelika Humbert
The Cryosphere, 17, 1097–1105, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1097-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1097-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The flow of glaciers and ice streams is influenced by crystal fabric orientation. Besides sparse ice cores, these can be investigated by radar measurements. Here, we present an improved method which allows us to infer the horizontal fabric asymmetry using polarimetric phase-sensitive radar data. A validation of the method on a deep ice core from the Greenland Ice Sheet shows an excellent agreement, which is a large improvement over previously used methods.
Yannic Fischler, Martin Rückamp, Christian Bischof, Vadym Aizinger, Mathieu Morlighem, and Angelika Humbert
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 3753–3771, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-3753-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-3753-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Ice sheet models are used to simulate the changes of ice sheets in future but are currently often run in coarse resolution and/or with neglecting important physics to make them affordable in terms of computational costs. We conducted a study simulating the Greenland Ice Sheet in high resolution and adequate physics to test where the ISSM ice sheet code is using most time and what could be done to improve its performance for future computer architectures that allow massive parallel computing.
M. Reza Ershadi, Reinhard Drews, Carlos Martín, Olaf Eisen, Catherine Ritz, Hugh Corr, Julia Christmann, Ole Zeising, Angelika Humbert, and Robert Mulvaney
The Cryosphere, 16, 1719–1739, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1719-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1719-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Radio waves transmitted through ice split up and inform us about the ice sheet interior and orientation of single ice crystals. This can be used to infer how ice flows and improve projections on how it will evolve in the future. Here we used an inverse approach and developed a new algorithm to infer ice properties from observed radar data. We applied this technique to the radar data obtained at two EPICA drilling sites, where ice cores were used to validate our results.
Martin Rückamp, Thomas Kleiner, and Angelika Humbert
The Cryosphere, 16, 1675–1696, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1675-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1675-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We present a comparative modelling study between the full-Stokes (FS) and Blatter–Pattyn (BP) approximation applied to the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream. Both stress regimes are implemented in one single ice sheet code to eliminate numerical issues. The simulations unveil minor differences in the upper ice stream but become considerable at the grounding line of the 79° North Glacier. Model differences are stronger for a power-law friction than a linear friction law.
Ole Zeising, Daniel Steinhage, Keith W. Nicholls, Hugh F. J. Corr, Craig L. Stewart, and Angelika Humbert
The Cryosphere, 16, 1469–1482, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1469-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1469-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Remote-sensing-derived basal melt rates of ice shelves are of great importance due to their capability to cover larger areas. We performed in situ measurements with a phase-sensitive radar on the southern Filchner Ice Shelf, showing moderate melt rates and low small-scale spatial variability. The comparison with remote-sensing-based melt rates revealed large differences caused by the estimation of vertical strain rates from remote sensing velocity fields that modern fields can overcome.
Timm Schultz, Ralf Müller, Dietmar Gross, and Angelika Humbert
The Cryosphere, 16, 143–158, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-143-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-143-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Firn is the interstage product between snow and ice. Simulations describing the process of firn densification are used in the context of estimating mass changes of the ice sheets and past climate reconstructions. The first stage of firn densification takes place in the upper few meters of the firn column. We investigate how well a material law describing the process of grain boundary sliding works for the numerical simulation of firn densification in this stage.
Ole Zeising and Angelika Humbert
The Cryosphere, 15, 3119–3128, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3119-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3119-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Greenland’s largest ice stream – the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS) – extends far into the interior of the ice sheet. Basal meltwater acts as a lubricant for glaciers and sustains sliding. Hence, observations of basal melt rates are of high interest. We performed two time series of precise ground-based radar measurements in the upstream region of NEGIS and found high melt rates of 0.19 ± 0.04 m per year.
Coen Hofstede, Sebastian Beyer, Hugh Corr, Olaf Eisen, Tore Hattermann, Veit Helm, Niklas Neckel, Emma C. Smith, Daniel Steinhage, Ole Zeising, and Angelika Humbert
The Cryosphere, 15, 1517–1535, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1517-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1517-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Support Force Glacier rapidly flows into Filcher Ice Shelf of Antarctica. As we know little about this glacier and its subglacial drainage, we used seismic energy to map the transition area from grounded to floating ice where a drainage channel enters the ocean cavity. Soft sediments close to the grounding line are probably transported by this drainage channel. The constant ice thickness over the steeply dipping seabed of the ocean cavity suggests a stable transition and little basal melting.
Maria T. Kappelsberger, Johan Nilsson, Martin Horwath, Veit Helm, and Alex S. Gardner
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5745, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5745, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for The Cryosphere (TC).
Short summary
Short summary
We compare surface elevation changes of the Antarctic Ice Sheet interior as derived from satellite radar altimetry and laser altimetry between 2019 and 2024. Both methods indicate an increase in surface elevation across most of the study area, coinciding with an episode of excess snow accumulation as modelled. However, rates of surface elevation increase from radar altimetry are systematically lower than those from laser altimetry.
Benjamin K. Galton-Fenzi, Richard Porter-Smith, Sue Cook, Eva Cougnon, David E. Gwyther, Wilma G. C. Huneke, Madelaine G. Rosevear, Xylar Asay-Davis, Fabio Boeira Dias, Michael S. Dinniman, David Holland, Kazuya Kusahara, Kaitlin A. Naughten, Keith W. Nicholls, Charles Pelletier, Ole Richter, Hélène Seroussi, and Ralph Timmermann
The Cryosphere, 19, 6507–6525, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-6507-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-6507-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Quantifying melt and freeze beneath Antarctica’s floating ice shelves is vital to understanding present-day ice-sheet behavior and its potential to contribute to future sea-level rise. We compare 10 ice-shelf/ocean computer simulations with satellite data, providing the first multi-model estimate of melting and refreezing driven by the ocean. This new estimate offers a valuable tool for assessing ice-shelf roles in current and future ice-sheet changes, informing coastal adaptation strategies.
Lena G. Buth, Thomas Krumpen, Niklas Neckel, Melinda A. Webster, Gerit Birnbaum, Niels Fuchs, Philipp Heuser, Ole Johannsen, and Christian Haas
The Cryosphere, 19, 6527–6545, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-6527-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-6527-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Arctic sea ice is becoming smoother, raising the question of how these changes affect melt pond coverage and thereby surface albedo. Using airborne imagery and laser altimeter data, we investigated how pressure ridges influence melt ponds. The presence of ridges does not directly control pond fraction, but it does influence pond size distribution and pond geometry. Small ponds have a more complex shape on rough ice than on smooth ice, while the opposite is true for large ponds.
Steven Franke, Daniel Steinhage, Veit Helm, Tobias Binder, Uwe Nixdorf, Heinrich Miller, Angelika Humbert, Daniela Jansen, Graeme Eagles, Hannes Eisermann, Wilfried Jokat, Antonia Ruppel, Reinhard Drews, Alexandra Zuhr, Amelie Driemel, Andreas Walter, Peter Konopatzky, Robin Heß, Antonie Haas, Roland Koppe, Pascal H. Andreas, and Olaf Eisen
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5328, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5328, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for The Cryosphere (TC).
Short summary
Short summary
This review synthesizes 30 years of AWI’s airborne radar research in Antarctica and Greenland, detailing six radar systems and their applications in studying ice dynamics, basal properties, and subglacial landscapes. It highlights scientific breakthroughs—from mapping ancient buried terrains to improving ice-sheet models—and introduces the public release of AWI’s radar datasets via the Radar Data Viewer and PANGAEA, ensuring FAIR-compliant access for future polar research.
Steven Franke, Mara Neudert, Veit Helm, Arttu Jutila, Océane Hames, Niklas Neckel, Stefanie Arndt, and Christian Haas
The Cryosphere, 19, 6319–6339, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-6319-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-6319-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Our research explored how icebergs affect the distribution of snow and flooding on Antarctic coastal sea ice. Using aircraft-based radar and laser scanning, we found that icebergs create thick snow drifts on their wind-facing sides and leave snow-free zones in their lee. The weight of these snow drifts often causes the ice below to flood, forming slush. These patterns, driven by wind and iceberg placement, are crucial for understanding sea ice changes and improving climate models.
Yiliang Ma, Liyun Zhao, Rupert Gladstone, Thomas Zwinger, Michael Wolovick, Junshun Wang, and John C. Moore
The Cryosphere, 19, 6187–6205, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-6187-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-6187-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Totten Glacier in Antarctica holds a sea level potential of 3.85 m. Basal sliding and sub-shelf melt rate have an important impact on ice sheet dynamics. We simulate the evolution of Totten Glacier using an ice flow model with different basal sliding parameterizations and sub-shelf melt rates to quantify their effect on the projections. We found that the modelled glacier retreat and mass loss are sensitive to the choice of basal sliding parameterizations and maximal sub-shelf melt rate.
Julien A. Bodart, Vjeran Višnjevic, Steven Franke, Veit Helm, Olaf Eisen, Antoine Hermant, Alexandra M. Zuhr, Daniel Steinhage, and Johannes C. R. Sutter
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5381, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5381, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for The Cryosphere (TC).
Short summary
Short summary
We used radar data and computer models to study layers within Antarctic ice that record past snowfall and ice-sheet changes. These layers, called isochrones, are seldomly used to model of Antarctica’s past. By comparing radar observations with simulations, we show how they can greatly improve model accuracy and provide two new datasets to help refine future reconstructions of Antarctic ice evolution.
Marcel Dreier, Moritz Koch, Nora Gourmelon, Norbert Blindow, Daniel Steinhage, Fei Wu, Thorsten Seehaus, Matthias Braun, Andreas Maier, and Vincent Christlein
The Cryosphere, 19, 5337–5359, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-5337-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-5337-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
In this paper, we present a ready-to-use benchmark dataset to train machine learning approaches for detecting ice thickness from radar data. It includes radargrams of glaciers and ice sheets alongside annotations for their air–ice and ice–bedrock boundary. Furthermore, we introduce a baseline model and evaluate the influence of several geographical and glaciological factors on the performance of our model.
Charlotte M. Carter, Steven Franke, Daniela Jansen, Chris R. Stokes, Veit Helm, John Paden, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 19, 5299–5315, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-5299-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-5299-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
The subglacial landforms beneath actively fast-flowing ice in Greenland have not been explored in detail, as digital elevation models have not had a high enough resolution to see these features. We use swath radar imaging to visualise landforms at the onset of an ice stream, revealing mega-scale glacial lineations, that would usually be assumed to be indicative of faster ice flow than the current velocities. Interpretation of the landscape also gives an indication of the properties of the bed.
Shenjie Zhou, Pierre Dutrieux, Claudia F. Giulivi, Adrian Jenkins, Alessandro Silvano, Christopher Auckland, E. Povl Abrahamsen, Michael Meredith, Irena Vaňková, Keith Nicholls, Peter E. D. Davis, Svein Østerhus, Arnold L. Gordon, Christopher J. Zappa, Tiago S. Dotto, Ted Scambos, Kathryn L. Gunn, Stephen R. Rintoul, Shigeru Aoki, Craig Stevens, Chengyan Liu, Sukyoung Yun, Tae-Wan Kim, Won Sang Lee, Markus Janout, Tore Hattermann, Julius Lauber, Elin Darelius, Anna Wåhlin, Leo Middleton, Pasquale Castagno, Giorgio Budillon, Karen J. Heywood, Jennifer Graham, Stephen Dye, Daisuke Hirano, and Una Kim Miller
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 5693–5706, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-5693-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-5693-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We created the first standardised dataset of in-situ ocean measurements time series from around Antarctica collected since 1970s. This includes temperature, salinity, pressure, and currents recorded by instruments deployed in icy, challenging conditions. Our analysis highlights the dominance of tidal currents and separates these from other patterns to study regional energy distribution. This unique dataset offers a foundation for future research on Antarctic ocean dynamics and ice interactions.
Álvaro Arenas-Pingarrón, Alex M. Brisbourne, Carlos Martín, Hugh F. J. Corr, Carl Robinson, Tom A. Jordan, and Paul V. Brennan
The Cryosphere, 19, 4657–4670, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4657-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4657-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging is essential for deep englacial observations. Each pixel is formed by averaging the radar echoes within an antenna beamwidth, but the echo diversity is lost after the average. We improve the SAR interpretation if three sub-images are formed with different sub-beamwidths: each is coloured in red, green, or blue, and they are overlapped, creating a coloured image. Interpreters will better identify the slopes of internal layers, crevasses, and layer roughness.
Christian T. Wild, Reinhard Drews, Niklas Neckel, Joohan Lee, Sihyung Kim, Hyangsun Han, Won Sang Lee, Veit Helm, Sebastian Harry Reid Rosier, Oliver J. Marsh, and Wolfgang Rack
The Cryosphere, 19, 4533–4554, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4533-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4533-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
The stability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet depends on how resistance along the sides of large glaciers slows down the flow of ice into the ocean. We present a method to map ice strength using the effect of ocean tides on floating ice shelves. Incorporating weaker ice in shear zones improves the accuracy of model predictions, compared with satellite observations. This demonstrates the untapped potential of radar satellites to map ice stiffness in the most critical areas for ice sheet stability.
Neil Ross, Rebecca J. Sanderson, Bernd Kulessa, Martin Siegert, Guy J. G. Paxman, Keir A. Nichols, Matthew R. Siegfried, Stewart S. R. Jamieson, Michael J. Bentley, Tom A. Jordan, Christine L. Batchelor, David Small, Olaf Eisen, Kate Winter, Robert G. Bingham, S. Louise Callard, Rachel Carr, Christine F. Dow, Helen A. Fricker, Emily Hill, Benjamin H. Hills, Coen Hofstede, Hafeez Jeofry, Felipe Napoleoni, and Wilson Sauthoff
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3625, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3625, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for The Cryosphere (TC).
Short summary
Short summary
We review previous research into a group of fast-flowing Antarctic ice streams, the Foundation-Patuxent-Academy System. Previously, we knew relatively little how these ice streams flow, how they interact with the ocean, what their geological history was, and how they might evolve in a warming world. By reviewing existing information on these ice streams, we identify the future research needed to determine how they function, and their potential contribution to global sea level rise.
Angelika Humbert, Veit Helm, Ole Zeising, Niklas Neckel, Matthias H. Braun, Shfaqat Abbas Khan, Martin Rückamp, Holger Steeb, Julia Sohn, Matthias Bohnen, and Ralf Müller
The Cryosphere, 19, 3009–3032, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-3009-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-3009-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We study the evolution of a massive lake on the Greenland Ice Sheet using satellite and airborne data and some modelling. The lake is emptying rapidly. Water flows to the glacier's base through cracks and triangular-shaped moulins that remain visible over the years. Some of them become reactivated. We find features inside the glacier that stem from drainage events with a width of even 1 km. These features are persistent over the years, although they are changing in shape.
Ole Zeising, Tore Hattermann, Lars Kaleschke, Sophie Berger, Olaf Boebel, Reinhard Drews, M. Reza Ershadi, Tanja Fromm, Frank Pattyn, Daniel Steinhage, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 19, 2837–2854, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2837-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2837-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Basal melting of ice shelves impacts the mass loss of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. This study focuses on the Ekström Ice Shelf in East Antarctica, using multiyear data from an autonomous radar system. Results show a surprising seasonal pattern of high melt rates in winter and spring. The seasonalities of sea-ice growth and ocean density indicate that, in winter, dense water enhances plume activity and melt rates. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for improving future mass balance projections.
Daniel Abele, Thomas Kleiner, Yannic Fischler, Benjamin Uekermann, Gerasimos Chourdakis, Mathieu Morlighem, Achim Basermann, Christian Bischof, Hans-Joachim Bungartz, and Angelika Humbert
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3345, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3345, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
For accurate projections of the evolution of continental ice sheets in Greenland and Antartica, interactions between the ice and its environment must be included in simulations. For this purpose, we have implemented adapters for the ice sheet model ISSM and subglacial hydrology model CUAS-MPI for the coupling library preCICE. This simplifies the study of earth systems by allowing the models to interact with each other as well as with models of the oceans or atmosphere with very little effort.
Junshun Wang, Liyun Zhao, Michael Wolovick, and John C. Moore
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3296, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3296, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Ice sheet models adjust basal sliding with assumed ice temperatures so that surface speeds match observations, leading to inconsistencies between basal thermal state and sliding fields. We propose a method to quantify these inconsistencies without requiring any subglacial measurements. This method is applied to ice sheet model of Totten Glacier using eight geothermal heat flux (GHF) datasets, yielding rankings of GHF that align with those based on radar data.
Katrina Lutz, Ilaria Tabone, Angelika Humbert, and Matthias Braun
The Cryosphere, 19, 2601–2614, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2601-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2601-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Supraglacial lakes develop from meltwater collecting on the surface of glaciers. These lakes can drain rapidly, discharging meltwater to the glacier bed. In this study, we assess the spatial and temporal distribution of rapid drainages in Northeast Greenland using optical satellite images. After comparing rapid drainage occurrence with several environmental and geophysical parameters, little indication of the influencing conditions for a rapid drainage was found.
Ole Zeising, Álvaro Arenas-Pingarrón, Alex M. Brisbourne, and Carlos Martín
The Cryosphere, 19, 2355–2363, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2355-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2355-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Ice crystal orientation influences how glacier ice deforms. Radar polarimetry is commonly used to study the bulk ice crystal orientation, but the often used coherence method only provides information of the shallow ice in fast-flowing areas. This study shows that reducing the bandwidth of high-bandwidth radar data significantly enhances the depth limit of the coherence method. This improvement helps us to better understand ice dynamics in fast-flowing ice streams.
Shfaqat A. Khan, Helene Seroussi, Mathieu Morlighem, William Colgan, Veit Helm, Gong Cheng, Danjal Berg, Valentina R. Barletta, Nicolaj K. Larsen, William Kochtitzky, Michiel van den Broeke, Kurt H. Kjær, Andy Aschwanden, Brice Noël, Jason E. Box, Joseph A. MacGregor, Robert S. Fausto, Kenneth D. Mankoff, Ian M. Howat, Kuba Oniszk, Dominik Fahrner, Anja Løkkegaard, Eigil Y. H. Lippert, Alicia Bråtner, and Javed Hassan
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 3047–3071, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-3047-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-3047-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
The surface elevation of the Greenland Ice Sheet is changing due to surface mass balance processes and ice dynamics, each exhibiting distinct spatiotemporal patterns. Here, we employ satellite and airborne altimetry data with fine spatial (1 km) and temporal (monthly) resolutions to document this spatiotemporal evolution from 2003 to 2023. This dataset of fine-resolution altimetry data in both space and time will support studies of ice mass loss and be useful for GIS ice sheet modeling.
Matthias O. Willen, Bert Wouters, Taco Broerse, Eric Buchta, and Veit Helm
The Cryosphere, 19, 2213–2227, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2213-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2213-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the Amundsen Sea Embayment is likely in the near future. Vertical uplift of bedrock due to glacial isostatic adjustment stabilizes the ice sheet and may delay its collapse. So far, only spatially and temporally sparse GPS measurements have been able to observe this bedrock motion. We have combined satellite data and quantified a region-wide bedrock motion that independently matches GPS measurements. This can improve ice sheet predictions.
Lea-Sophie Höyns, Thomas Kleiner, Andreas Rademacher, Martin Rückamp, Michael Wolovick, and Angelika Humbert
The Cryosphere, 19, 2133–2158, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2133-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-2133-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
The sliding of glaciers over bedrock is influenced by water pressure in the underlying hydrological system and the roughness of the land underneath the glacier. We estimate this roughness through a modeling approach that optimizes this unknown parameter. Additionally, we simulate water pressure, enhancing the reliability of the computed drag at the ice sheet base. The resulting data are provided to other modelers and scientists conducting geophysical field observations.
Tamara Annina Gerber, David A. Lilien, Niels F. Nymand, Daniel Steinhage, Olaf Eisen, and Dorthe Dahl-Jensen
The Cryosphere, 19, 1955–1971, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1955-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1955-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This study examines how anisotropic scattering and birefringence affect radar signals in ice sheets. Using data from northeast Greenland, we show that anisotropic scattering – driven by subtle ice crystal orientation changes – dominates the azimuthal power response. We find a strong link between scattering strength, orientation, and stratigraphy. This suggests anisotropic scattering can reveal crystal fabric orientation and differentiate ice units from distinct climatic periods.
Torsten Kanzow, Angelika Humbert, Thomas Mölg, Mirko Scheinert, Matthias Braun, Hans Burchard, Francesca Doglioni, Philipp Hochreuther, Martin Horwath, Oliver Huhn, Maria Kappelsberger, Jürgen Kusche, Erik Loebel, Katrina Lutz, Ben Marzeion, Rebecca McPherson, Mahdi Mohammadi-Aragh, Marco Möller, Carolyne Pickler, Markus Reinert, Monika Rhein, Martin Rückamp, Janin Schaffer, Muhammad Shafeeque, Sophie Stolzenberger, Ralph Timmermann, Jenny Turton, Claudia Wekerle, and Ole Zeising
The Cryosphere, 19, 1789–1824, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1789-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1789-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
The Greenland Ice Sheet represents the second-largest contributor to global sea-level rise. We quantify atmosphere, ice and ocean processes related to the mass balance of glaciers in northeast Greenland, focusing on Greenland’s largest floating ice tongue, the 79° N Glacier. We find that together, the different in situ and remote sensing observations and model simulations reveal a consistent picture of a coupled atmosphere–ice sheet–ocean system that has entered a phase of major change.
Steven Franke, Daniel Steinhage, Veit Helm, Alexandra M. Zuhr, Julien A. Bodart, Olaf Eisen, and Paul Bons
The Cryosphere, 19, 1153–1180, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1153-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1153-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
The study presents internal reflection horizons (IRHs) over an area of 450 000 km² from western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, spanning 4.8–91 ka. Using radar and ice core data, nine IRHs were dated and correlated with volcanic events. The data enhance our understanding of the ice sheet's age–depth architecture, accumulation, and dynamics. The findings inform ice flow models and contribute to Antarctic-wide comparisons of IRHs, supporting efforts toward a 3D age–depth ice sheet model.
Katrina Lutz, Lily Bever, Christian Sommer, Thorsten Seehaus, Angelika Humbert, Mirko Scheinert, and Matthias Braun
The Cryosphere, 18, 5431–5449, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-5431-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-5431-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The estimation of the amount of water found within supraglacial lakes is important for understanding how much water is lost from glaciers each year. Here, we develop two new methods for estimating supraglacial lake volume that can be easily applied on a large scale. Furthermore, we compare these methods to two previously developed methods in order to determine when it is best to use each method. Finally, three of these methods are applied to peak melt dates over an area in Northeast Greenland.
Emma Pearce, Dimitri Zigone, Coen Hofstede, Andreas Fichtner, Joachim Rimpot, Sune Olander Rasmussen, Johannes Freitag, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 18, 4917–4932, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-4917-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-4917-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Our study near EastGRIP camp in Greenland shows varying firn properties by direction (crucial for studying ice stream stability, structure, surface mass balance, and past climate conditions). We used dispersion curve analysis of Love and Rayleigh waves to show firn is nonuniform along and across the flow of an ice stream due to wind patterns, seasonal variability, and the proximity to the edge of the ice stream. This method better informs firn structure, advancing ice stream understanding.
Jean-Baptiste Sallée, Lucie Vignes, Audrey Minière, Nadine Steiger, Etienne Pauthenet, Antonio Lourenco, Kevin Speer, Peter Lazarevich, and Keith W. Nicholls
Ocean Sci., 20, 1267–1280, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-1267-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-1267-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
In the Weddell Sea, we investigated how warm deep currents and cold waters containing freshwater released from the Antarctic are connected. We used autonomous observation devices that have never been used in this region previously and that allow us to track the movement and characteristics of water masses under the sea ice. Our findings show a dynamic interaction between warm masses, providing key insights to understand climate-related changes in the region.
Veit Helm, Alireza Dehghanpour, Ronny Hänsch, Erik Loebel, Martin Horwath, and Angelika Humbert
The Cryosphere, 18, 3933–3970, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3933-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3933-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We present a new approach (AWI-ICENet1), based on a deep convolutional neural network, for analysing satellite radar altimeter measurements to accurately determine the surface height of ice sheets. Surface height estimates obtained with AWI-ICENet1 (along with related products, such as ice sheet height change and volume change) show improved and unbiased results compared to other products. This is important for the long-term monitoring of ice sheet mass loss and its impact on sea level rise.
Erik Loebel, Mirko Scheinert, Martin Horwath, Angelika Humbert, Julia Sohn, Konrad Heidler, Charlotte Liebezeit, and Xiao Xiang Zhu
The Cryosphere, 18, 3315–3332, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3315-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3315-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Comprehensive datasets of calving-front changes are essential for studying and modeling outlet glaciers. Current records are limited in temporal resolution due to manual delineation. We use deep learning to automatically delineate calving fronts for 23 glaciers in Greenland. Resulting time series resolve long-term, seasonal, and subseasonal patterns. We discuss the implications of our results and provide the cryosphere community with a data product and an implementation of our processing system.
Niko Schmidt, Angelika Humbert, and Thomas Slawig
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 4943–4959, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-4943-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-4943-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Future sea-level rise is of big significance for coastal regions. The melting and acceleration of glaciers plays a major role in sea-level change. Computer simulation of glaciers costs a lot of computational resources. In this publication, we test a new way of simulating glaciers. This approach produces the same results but has the advantage that it needs much less computation time. As simulations can be obtained with fewer computation resources, higher resolution and physics become affordable.
Ole Zeising, Niklas Neckel, Nils Dörr, Veit Helm, Daniel Steinhage, Ralph Timmermann, and Angelika Humbert
The Cryosphere, 18, 1333–1357, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-1333-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-1333-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The 79° North Glacier in Greenland has experienced significant changes over the last decades. Due to extreme melt rates, the ice has thinned significantly in the vicinity of the grounding line, where a large subglacial channel has formed since 2010. We attribute these changes to warm ocean currents and increased subglacial discharge from surface melt. However, basal melting has decreased since 2018, indicating colder water inflow into the cavity below the glacier.
Matthias O. Willen, Martin Horwath, Eric Buchta, Mirko Scheinert, Veit Helm, Bernd Uebbing, and Jürgen Kusche
The Cryosphere, 18, 775–790, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-775-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-775-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Shrinkage of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) leads to sea level rise. Satellite gravimetry measures AIS mass changes. We apply a new method that overcomes two limitations: low spatial resolution and large uncertainties due to the Earth's interior mass changes. To do so, we additionally include data from satellite altimetry and climate and firn modelling, which are evaluated in a globally consistent way with thoroughly characterized errors. The results are in better agreement with independent data.
Yan Huang, Liyun Zhao, Michael Wolovick, Yiliang Ma, and John C. Moore
The Cryosphere, 18, 103–119, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-103-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-103-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Geothermal heat flux (GHF) is an important factor affecting the basal thermal environment of an ice sheet and crucial for its dynamics. But it is poorly defined for the Antarctic ice sheet. We simulate the basal temperature and basal melting rate with eight different GHF datasets. We use specularity content as a two-sided constraint to discriminate between local wet or dry basal conditions. Two medium-magnitude GHF distribution maps rank well, showing that most of the inland bed area is frozen.
Hélène Seroussi, Vincent Verjans, Sophie Nowicki, Antony J. Payne, Heiko Goelzer, William H. Lipscomb, Ayako Abe-Ouchi, Cécile Agosta, Torsten Albrecht, Xylar Asay-Davis, Alice Barthel, Reinhard Calov, Richard Cullather, Christophe Dumas, Benjamin K. Galton-Fenzi, Rupert Gladstone, Nicholas R. Golledge, Jonathan M. Gregory, Ralf Greve, Tore Hattermann, Matthew J. Hoffman, Angelika Humbert, Philippe Huybrechts, Nicolas C. Jourdain, Thomas Kleiner, Eric Larour, Gunter R. Leguy, Daniel P. Lowry, Chistopher M. Little, Mathieu Morlighem, Frank Pattyn, Tyler Pelle, Stephen F. Price, Aurélien Quiquet, Ronja Reese, Nicole-Jeanne Schlegel, Andrew Shepherd, Erika Simon, Robin S. Smith, Fiammetta Straneo, Sainan Sun, Luke D. Trusel, Jonas Van Breedam, Peter Van Katwyk, Roderik S. W. van de Wal, Ricarda Winkelmann, Chen Zhao, Tong Zhang, and Thomas Zwinger
The Cryosphere, 17, 5197–5217, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5197-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5197-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Mass loss from Antarctica is a key contributor to sea level rise over the 21st century, and the associated uncertainty dominates sea level projections. We highlight here the Antarctic glaciers showing the largest changes and quantify the main sources of uncertainty in their future evolution using an ensemble of ice flow models. We show that on top of Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers, Totten and Moscow University glaciers show rapid changes and a strong sensitivity to warmer ocean conditions.
Michael Wolovick, Angelika Humbert, Thomas Kleiner, and Martin Rückamp
The Cryosphere, 17, 5027–5060, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5027-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5027-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The friction underneath ice sheets can be inferred from observed velocity at the top, but this inference requires smoothing. The selection of smoothing has been highly variable in the literature. Here we show how to rigorously select the best smoothing, and we show that the inferred friction converges towards the best knowable field as model resolution improves. We use this to learn about the best description of basal friction and to formulate recommended best practices for other modelers.
Zhuo Wang, Ailsa Chung, Daniel Steinhage, Frédéric Parrenin, Johannes Freitag, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 17, 4297–4314, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4297-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4297-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We combine radar-based observed internal layer stratigraphy of the ice sheet with a 1-D ice flow model in the Dome Fuji region. This results in maps of age and age density of the basal ice, the basal thermal conditions, and reconstructed accumulation rates. Based on modeled age we then identify four potential candidates for ice which is potentially 1.5 Myr old. Our map of basal thermal conditions indicates that melting prevails over the presence of stagnant ice in the study area.
Yannic Fischler, Thomas Kleiner, Christian Bischof, Jeremie Schmiedel, Roiy Sayag, Raban Emunds, Lennart Frederik Oestreich, and Angelika Humbert
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 5305–5322, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-5305-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-5305-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Water underneath ice sheets affects the motion of glaciers. This study presents a newly developed code, CUAS-MPI, that simulates subglacial hydrology. It is designed for supercomputers and is hence a parallelized code. We measure the performance of this code for simulations of the entire Greenland Ice Sheet and find that the code works efficiently. Moreover, we validated the code to ensure the correctness of the solution. CUAS-MPI opens new possibilities for simulations of ice sheet hydrology.
Ailsa Chung, Frédéric Parrenin, Daniel Steinhage, Robert Mulvaney, Carlos Martín, Marie G. P. Cavitte, David A. Lilien, Veit Helm, Drew Taylor, Prasad Gogineni, Catherine Ritz, Massimo Frezzotti, Charles O'Neill, Heinrich Miller, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 17, 3461–3483, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-3461-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-3461-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We combined a numerical model with radar measurements in order to determine the age of ice in the Dome C region of Antarctica. Our results show that at the current ice core drilling sites on Little Dome C, the maximum age of the ice is almost 1.5 Ma. We also highlight a new potential drill site called North Patch with ice up to 2 Ma. Finally, we explore the nature of a stagnant ice layer at the base of the ice sheet which has been independently observed and modelled but is not well understood.
Alice C. Frémand, Peter Fretwell, Julien A. Bodart, Hamish D. Pritchard, Alan Aitken, Jonathan L. Bamber, Robin Bell, Cesidio Bianchi, Robert G. Bingham, Donald D. Blankenship, Gino Casassa, Ginny Catania, Knut Christianson, Howard Conway, Hugh F. J. Corr, Xiangbin Cui, Detlef Damaske, Volkmar Damm, Reinhard Drews, Graeme Eagles, Olaf Eisen, Hannes Eisermann, Fausto Ferraccioli, Elena Field, René Forsberg, Steven Franke, Shuji Fujita, Yonggyu Gim, Vikram Goel, Siva Prasad Gogineni, Jamin Greenbaum, Benjamin Hills, Richard C. A. Hindmarsh, Andrew O. Hoffman, Per Holmlund, Nicholas Holschuh, John W. Holt, Annika N. Horlings, Angelika Humbert, Robert W. Jacobel, Daniela Jansen, Adrian Jenkins, Wilfried Jokat, Tom Jordan, Edward King, Jack Kohler, William Krabill, Mette Kusk Gillespie, Kirsty Langley, Joohan Lee, German Leitchenkov, Carlton Leuschen, Bruce Luyendyk, Joseph MacGregor, Emma MacKie, Kenichi Matsuoka, Mathieu Morlighem, Jérémie Mouginot, Frank O. Nitsche, Yoshifumi Nogi, Ole A. Nost, John Paden, Frank Pattyn, Sergey V. Popov, Eric Rignot, David M. Rippin, Andrés Rivera, Jason Roberts, Neil Ross, Anotonia Ruppel, Dustin M. Schroeder, Martin J. Siegert, Andrew M. Smith, Daniel Steinhage, Michael Studinger, Bo Sun, Ignazio Tabacco, Kirsty Tinto, Stefano Urbini, David Vaughan, Brian C. Welch, Douglas S. Wilson, Duncan A. Young, and Achille Zirizzotti
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 2695–2710, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2695-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-2695-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents the release of over 60 years of ice thickness, bed elevation, and surface elevation data acquired over Antarctica by the international community. These data are a crucial component of the Antarctic Bedmap initiative which aims to produce a new map and datasets of Antarctic ice thickness and bed topography for the international glaciology and geophysical community.
Angelika Humbert, Veit Helm, Niklas Neckel, Ole Zeising, Martin Rückamp, Shfaqat Abbas Khan, Erik Loebel, Jörg Brauchle, Karsten Stebner, Dietmar Gross, Rabea Sondershaus, and Ralf Müller
The Cryosphere, 17, 2851–2870, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2851-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2851-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The largest floating glacier mass in Greenland, the 79° N Glacier, is showing signs of instability. We investigate how crack formation at the glacier's calving front has changed over the last decades by using satellite imagery and airborne data. The calving front is about to lose contact to stabilizing ice islands. Simulations show that the glacier will accelerate as a result of this, leading to an increase in ice discharge of more than 5.1 % if its calving front retreats by 46 %.
Michael J. Bentley, James A. Smith, Stewart S. R. Jamieson, Margaret R. Lindeman, Brice R. Rea, Angelika Humbert, Timothy P. Lane, Christopher M. Darvill, Jeremy M. Lloyd, Fiamma Straneo, Veit Helm, and David H. Roberts
The Cryosphere, 17, 1821–1837, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1821-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1821-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The Northeast Greenland Ice Stream is a major outlet of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Some of its outlet glaciers and ice shelves have been breaking up and retreating, with inflows of warm ocean water identified as the likely reason. Here we report direct measurements of warm ocean water in an unusual lake that is connected to the ocean beneath the ice shelf in front of the 79° N Glacier. This glacier has not yet shown much retreat, but the presence of warm water makes future retreat more likely.
Inès N. Otosaka, Andrew Shepherd, Erik R. Ivins, Nicole-Jeanne Schlegel, Charles Amory, Michiel R. van den Broeke, Martin Horwath, Ian Joughin, Michalea D. King, Gerhard Krinner, Sophie Nowicki, Anthony J. Payne, Eric Rignot, Ted Scambos, Karen M. Simon, Benjamin E. Smith, Louise S. Sørensen, Isabella Velicogna, Pippa L. Whitehouse, Geruo A, Cécile Agosta, Andreas P. Ahlstrøm, Alejandro Blazquez, William Colgan, Marcus E. Engdahl, Xavier Fettweis, Rene Forsberg, Hubert Gallée, Alex Gardner, Lin Gilbert, Noel Gourmelen, Andreas Groh, Brian C. Gunter, Christopher Harig, Veit Helm, Shfaqat Abbas Khan, Christoph Kittel, Hannes Konrad, Peter L. Langen, Benoit S. Lecavalier, Chia-Chun Liang, Bryant D. Loomis, Malcolm McMillan, Daniele Melini, Sebastian H. Mernild, Ruth Mottram, Jeremie Mouginot, Johan Nilsson, Brice Noël, Mark E. Pattle, William R. Peltier, Nadege Pie, Mònica Roca, Ingo Sasgen, Himanshu V. Save, Ki-Weon Seo, Bernd Scheuchl, Ernst J. O. Schrama, Ludwig Schröder, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Thomas Slater, Giorgio Spada, Tyler C. Sutterley, Bramha Dutt Vishwakarma, Jan Melchior van Wessem, David Wiese, Wouter van der Wal, and Bert Wouters
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 1597–1616, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1597-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1597-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
By measuring changes in the volume, gravitational attraction, and ice flow of Greenland and Antarctica from space, we can monitor their mass gain and loss over time. Here, we present a new record of the Earth’s polar ice sheet mass balance produced by aggregating 50 satellite-based estimates of ice sheet mass change. This new assessment shows that the ice sheets have lost (7.5 x 1012) t of ice between 1992 and 2020, contributing 21 mm to sea level rise.
Ole Zeising, Tamara Annina Gerber, Olaf Eisen, M. Reza Ershadi, Nicolas Stoll, Ilka Weikusat, and Angelika Humbert
The Cryosphere, 17, 1097–1105, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1097-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1097-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The flow of glaciers and ice streams is influenced by crystal fabric orientation. Besides sparse ice cores, these can be investigated by radar measurements. Here, we present an improved method which allows us to infer the horizontal fabric asymmetry using polarimetric phase-sensitive radar data. A validation of the method on a deep ice core from the Greenland Ice Sheet shows an excellent agreement, which is a large improvement over previously used methods.
Haoran Kang, Liyun Zhao, Michael Wolovick, and John C. Moore
The Cryosphere, 16, 3619–3633, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-3619-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-3619-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Basal thermal conditions are important to ice dynamics and sensitive to geothermal heat flux (GHF). We estimate basal thermal conditions of the Lambert–Amery Glacier system with six GHF maps. Recent GHFs inverted from aerial geomagnetic observations produce a larger warm-based area and match the observed subglacial lakes better than the other GHFs. The modelled basal melt rate is 10 to hundreds of millimetres per year in fast-flowing glaciers feeding the Amery Ice Shelf and smaller inland.
Alice C. Frémand, Julien A. Bodart, Tom A. Jordan, Fausto Ferraccioli, Carl Robinson, Hugh F. J. Corr, Helen J. Peat, Robert G. Bingham, and David G. Vaughan
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 3379–3410, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3379-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3379-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents the release of large swaths of airborne geophysical data (including gravity, magnetics, and radar) acquired between 1994 and 2020 over Antarctica by the British Antarctic Survey. These include a total of 64 datasets from 24 different surveys, amounting to >30 % of coverage over the Antarctic Ice Sheet. This paper discusses how these data were acquired and processed and presents the methods used to standardize and publish the data in an interactive and reproducible manner.
Astrid Oetting, Emma C. Smith, Jan Erik Arndt, Boris Dorschel, Reinhard Drews, Todd A. Ehlers, Christoph Gaedicke, Coen Hofstede, Johann P. Klages, Gerhard Kuhn, Astrid Lambrecht, Andreas Läufer, Christoph Mayer, Ralf Tiedemann, Frank Wilhelms, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 16, 2051–2066, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2051-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2051-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
This study combines a variety of geophysical measurements in front of and beneath the Ekström Ice Shelf in order to identify and interpret geomorphological evidences of past ice sheet flow, extent and retreat.
The maximal extent of grounded ice in this region was 11 km away from the continental shelf break.
The thickness of palaeo-ice on the calving front around the LGM was estimated to be at least 305 to 320 m.
We provide essential boundary conditions for palaeo-ice-sheet models.
Yannic Fischler, Martin Rückamp, Christian Bischof, Vadym Aizinger, Mathieu Morlighem, and Angelika Humbert
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 3753–3771, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-3753-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-3753-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Ice sheet models are used to simulate the changes of ice sheets in future but are currently often run in coarse resolution and/or with neglecting important physics to make them affordable in terms of computational costs. We conducted a study simulating the Greenland Ice Sheet in high resolution and adequate physics to test where the ISSM ice sheet code is using most time and what could be done to improve its performance for future computer architectures that allow massive parallel computing.
M. Reza Ershadi, Reinhard Drews, Carlos Martín, Olaf Eisen, Catherine Ritz, Hugh Corr, Julia Christmann, Ole Zeising, Angelika Humbert, and Robert Mulvaney
The Cryosphere, 16, 1719–1739, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1719-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1719-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Radio waves transmitted through ice split up and inform us about the ice sheet interior and orientation of single ice crystals. This can be used to infer how ice flows and improve projections on how it will evolve in the future. Here we used an inverse approach and developed a new algorithm to infer ice properties from observed radar data. We applied this technique to the radar data obtained at two EPICA drilling sites, where ice cores were used to validate our results.
Martin Rückamp, Thomas Kleiner, and Angelika Humbert
The Cryosphere, 16, 1675–1696, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1675-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1675-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We present a comparative modelling study between the full-Stokes (FS) and Blatter–Pattyn (BP) approximation applied to the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream. Both stress regimes are implemented in one single ice sheet code to eliminate numerical issues. The simulations unveil minor differences in the upper ice stream but become considerable at the grounding line of the 79° North Glacier. Model differences are stronger for a power-law friction than a linear friction law.
Ole Zeising, Daniel Steinhage, Keith W. Nicholls, Hugh F. J. Corr, Craig L. Stewart, and Angelika Humbert
The Cryosphere, 16, 1469–1482, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1469-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1469-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Remote-sensing-derived basal melt rates of ice shelves are of great importance due to their capability to cover larger areas. We performed in situ measurements with a phase-sensitive radar on the southern Filchner Ice Shelf, showing moderate melt rates and low small-scale spatial variability. The comparison with remote-sensing-based melt rates revealed large differences caused by the estimation of vertical strain rates from remote sensing velocity fields that modern fields can overcome.
Mengdie Xie, John C. Moore, Liyun Zhao, Michael Wolovick, and Helene Muri
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 4581–4597, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4581-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4581-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We use data from six Earth system models to estimate Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) changes and its drivers under four different solar geoengineering methods. Solar dimming seems relatively more effective than marine cloud brightening or stratospheric aerosol injection at reversing greenhouse-gas-driven declines in AMOC. Geoengineering-induced AMOC amelioration is due to better maintenance of air–sea temperature differences and reduced loss of Arctic summer sea ice.
Steven Franke, Daniela Jansen, Tobias Binder, John D. Paden, Nils Dörr, Tamara A. Gerber, Heinrich Miller, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Veit Helm, Daniel Steinhage, Ilka Weikusat, Frank Wilhelms, and Olaf Eisen
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 763–779, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-763-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-763-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS) is the largest ice stream in Greenland. In order to better understand the past and future dynamics of the NEGIS, we present a high-resolution airborne radar data set (EGRIP-NOR-2018) for the onset region of the NEGIS. The survey area is centered at the location of the drill site of the East Greenland Ice-Core Project (EastGRIP), and radar profiles cover both shear margins and are aligned parallel to several flow lines.
Timm Schultz, Ralf Müller, Dietmar Gross, and Angelika Humbert
The Cryosphere, 16, 143–158, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-143-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-143-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Firn is the interstage product between snow and ice. Simulations describing the process of firn densification are used in the context of estimating mass changes of the ice sheets and past climate reconstructions. The first stage of firn densification takes place in the upper few meters of the firn column. We investigate how well a material law describing the process of grain boundary sliding works for the numerical simulation of firn densification in this stage.
Chao Yue, Louise Steffensen Schmidt, Liyun Zhao, Michael Wolovick, and John C. Moore
The Cryosphere Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2021-318, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2021-318, 2021
Revised manuscript not accepted
Short summary
Short summary
We use the ice sheet model PISM to estimate Vatnajökull mass balance under solar geoengineering. We find that Stratospheric aerosol injection at the rate of 5 Tg yr−1 reduces ice cap mass loss by 4 percentage points relative to the RCP4.5 scenario. Dynamic mass loss is a significant component of mass balance, but insensitive to climate forcing.
Ole Zeising and Angelika Humbert
The Cryosphere, 15, 3119–3128, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3119-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3119-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Greenland’s largest ice stream – the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS) – extends far into the interior of the ice sheet. Basal meltwater acts as a lubricant for glaciers and sustains sliding. Hence, observations of basal melt rates are of high interest. We performed two time series of precise ground-based radar measurements in the upstream region of NEGIS and found high melt rates of 0.19 ± 0.04 m per year.
Mirko Scheinert, Christoph Mayer, Martin Horwath, Matthias Braun, Anja Wendt, and Daniel Steinhage
Polarforschung, 89, 57–64, https://doi.org/10.5194/polf-89-57-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/polf-89-57-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Ice sheets, glaciers and further ice-covered areas with their changes as well as interactions with the solid Earth and the ocean are subject of intensive research, especially against the backdrop of global climate change. The resulting questions are of concern to scientists from various disciplines such as geodesy, glaciology, physical geography and geophysics. Thus, the working group "Polar Geodesy and Glaciology", founded in 2013, offers a forum for discussion and stimulating exchange.
David A. Lilien, Daniel Steinhage, Drew Taylor, Frédéric Parrenin, Catherine Ritz, Robert Mulvaney, Carlos Martín, Jie-Bang Yan, Charles O'Neill, Massimo Frezzotti, Heinrich Miller, Prasad Gogineni, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 15, 1881–1888, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1881-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1881-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We collected radar data between EDC, an ice core spanning ~800 000 years, and BELDC, the site chosen for a new
oldest icecore at nearby Little Dome C. These data allow us to identify 50 % older internal horizons than previously traced in the area. We fit a model to the ages of those horizons at BELDC to determine the age of deep ice there. We find that there is likely to be 1.5 Myr old ice ~265 m above the bed, with sufficient resolution to preserve desired climatic information.
Coen Hofstede, Sebastian Beyer, Hugh Corr, Olaf Eisen, Tore Hattermann, Veit Helm, Niklas Neckel, Emma C. Smith, Daniel Steinhage, Ole Zeising, and Angelika Humbert
The Cryosphere, 15, 1517–1535, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1517-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1517-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Support Force Glacier rapidly flows into Filcher Ice Shelf of Antarctica. As we know little about this glacier and its subglacial drainage, we used seismic energy to map the transition area from grounded to floating ice where a drainage channel enters the ocean cavity. Soft sediments close to the grounding line are probably transported by this drainage channel. The constant ice thickness over the steeply dipping seabed of the ocean cavity suggests a stable transition and little basal melting.
Stefan Kowalewski, Veit Helm, Elizabeth Mary Morris, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 15, 1285–1305, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1285-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1285-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
This study presents estimates of total mass input for the Pine Island Glacier (PIG) over the period 2005–2014 from airborne radar measurements. Our analysis reveals a total mass input similar to an earlier estimate for the period 1985–2009 and same area. This suggests a stationary total mass input contrary to the accelerated mass loss of PIG over the past decades. However, we also find that its uncertainty is highly sensitive to the geostatistical assumptions required for its calculation.
Evelyn Jäkel, Tim Carlsen, André Ehrlich, Manfred Wendisch, Michael Schäfer, Sophie Rosenburg, Konstantina Nakoudi, Marco Zanatta, Gerit Birnbaum, Veit Helm, Andreas Herber, Larysa Istomina, Linlu Mei, and Anika Rohde
The Cryosphere Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2021-14, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2021-14, 2021
Preprint withdrawn
Short summary
Short summary
Different approaches to retrieve the optical-equivalent snow grain size using satellite, airborne, and ground-based observations were evaluated and compared to modeled data. The study is focused on low Sun and partly rough surface conditions encountered North of Greenland in March/April 2018. We proposed an adjusted airborne retrieval method to reduce the retrieval uncertainty.
Cited articles
Alley, K. E., Scambos, T. A., Alley, R. B., and Holschuh, N.: Troughs developed
in ice-stream shear margins precondition ice shelves for ocean-driven
breakup, Science Advances, 5, eaax2215, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax2215, 2019. a
Bassis, J. and Ma, Y.: Evolution of basal crevasses links ice shelf stability
to ocean forcing, Earth Planetary Sc. Lett., 409, 203–211,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2014.11.003, 2015. a
Blatter, H.: Velocity and stress fields in grounded glaciers: a simple
algorithm for including deviatoric stress gradients, J. Glaciol.,
41, 333–344, https://doi.org/10.3189/S002214300001621X, 1995. a, b
Brennan, P. V., Lok, L. B., Nicholls, K., and Corr, H.: Phase-sensitive FMCW radar system for high-precision Antarctic ice shelf profile monitoring, IET Radar Sonar Nav., 8, 776–786, https://doi.org/10.1049/iet-rsn.2013.0053, 2014. a, b
Christmann, J.: Viscoelastic Finite Strain Meltchannel, AWI GitLab [code], https://gitlab.awi.de/jchristm/viscoelastic-finite-defos-meltchannel, last access: 5 October 2022. a
Christmann, J., Plate, C., Müller, R., and Humbert, A.: Viscous and
viscoelastic stress states at the calving front of Antarctic ice shelves,
Ann. Glaciol., 57, 10–18, https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2016.18, 2016. a
Christmann, J., Müller, R., and Humbert, A.: On nonlinear strain theory for
a viscoelastic material model and its implications for calving of ice
shelves, J. Glaciol., 65, 212–224, https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2018.107,
2019. a, b, c, d
Christmann, J., Helm, V., Khan, S. A., Kleiner, T., Müller, R., Morlighem,
M., Neckel, N., Rückamp, M., Steinhage, D., Zeising, O., and Humbert, A.:
Elastic deformation plays a non-negligible role in Greenland's outlet
glacier flow, Communications Earth & Environment, 2, 232,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00296-3, 2021. a, b
Christmann, J., Humbert, A., Schultz, T., and Müller, R.: COMice-ve-fs as used in Humbert et al., The Cyrosphere, Version 1, Zenodo [code], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7101449, 2022. a
Corr, H. F., Jenkins, A., Nicholls, K. W., and Doake, C.: Precise measurement
of changes in ice-shelf thickness by phase-sensitive radar to determine basal
melt rates, Geophys. Res. Lett., 29, 73-1–73-4,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2001GL014618, 2002.
a
Cuitino, A. and Ortiz, M.: Computational modelling of single crystals, Model. Simul. Mater. Sc., 1, 225–263, https://doi.org/10.1088/0965-0393/1/3/001, 1992. a
Dinniman, M. S., Asay-Davis, X. S., Galton-Fenzi, B. K., Holland, P. R.,
Jenkins, A., and Timmermann, R.: Modeling Ice Shelf/Ocean Interaction in
Antarctica: A Review, Oceanography, 29, 144–153,
https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2016.106, 2016. a
DLR (German Aerospace Center): TanDEM-X - PolarDEM - Antarctica, 90m, DLR [data set], https://doi.org/10.15489/9jhr18jepi65, 2020. a, b
Dow, C. F., Lee, W. S., Greenbaum, J. S., Greene, C. A., Blankenship, D. D.,
Poinar, K., Forrest, A. L., Young, D. A., and Zappa, C. J.: Basal channels
drive active surface hydrology and transverse ice shelf fracture, Science
Advances, 4, eaao7212, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aao7212, 2018. a, b, c
Drews, R.: Evolution of ice-shelf channels in Antarctic ice shelves, The Cryosphere, 9, 1169–1181, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1169-2015, 2015. a
Drews, R., Pattyn, F., Hewitt, I. J., Ng, F. S. L., Berger, S., Matsuoka, K.,
Helm, V., Bergeot, N., Favier, L., and Neckel, N.: Actively evolving
subglacial conduits and eskers initiate ice shelf channels at an Antarctic
grounding line, Nat. Commun., 8, 15228, https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15228, 2017. a
Dutrieux, P., Stewart, C., Jenkins, A., Nicholls, K. W., Corr, H. F., Rignot,
E., and Steffen, K.: Basal terraces on melting ice shelves, Geophys. Res. Lett., 41, 5506–5513, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL060618, 2014. a, b
Eisen, O., Winter, A., Steinhage, D., Kleiner, T., and Humbert, A.: Basal
roughness of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet in relation to flow speed and basal thermal state, Ann. Glaciol., 61, 162–175,
https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2020.47, 2020. a, b
Foerste, C., Bruinsma, S., Abrykosov, O., Lemoine, J.-M., Marty, J. C., Flechtner, F., Balmino, G., Barthelmes, F., and Biancale, R.: EIGEN-6C4 The latest combined global gravity field model including GOCE data up to degree and order 2190 of GFZ Potsdam and GRGS Toulouse, GFZ Data Services [data set], https://doi.org/10.5880/icgem.2015.1, 2014. a
Fujita, S., Matsuoka, T., Ishida, T., Matsuoka, K., and Mae, S.: A summary of the complex dielectric permittivity of ice in the megahertz range and its
applications for radar sounding of polar ice sheets, in: Physics of ice core
records, Hokkaido University Press, 185–212, http://hdl.handle.net/2115/32469 (last access: 29 September 2022), 2000. a
Galton-Fenzi, B. K., Hunter, J. R., Coleman, R., Marsland, S. J., and Warner, R. C.: Modeling the basal melting and marine ice accretion of the Amery Ice Shelf, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 117, C09031, https://doi.org/10.1029/2012JC008214, 2012. a
Gladish, C. V., Holland, D. M., Holland, P. R., and Price, S. F.: Ice-shelf
basal channels in a coupled ice/ocean model, J. Glaciol., 58,
1227–1244, https://doi.org/10.3189/2012JoG12J003, 2012. a
Gudmundsson, G. H.: Ice-stream response to ocean tides and the form of the basal sliding law, The Cryosphere, 5, 259–270, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-5-259-2011,
2011. a
Gwyther, D. E., Kusahara, K., Asay-Davis, X. S., Dinniman, M. S., and
Galton-Fenzi, B. K.: Vertical processes and resolution impact ice shelf
basal melting: A multi-model study, Ocean Model., 147, 101569,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocemod.2020.101569, 2020. a
Haupt, P.: Continuum Mechanics and Theory of Materials, Springer, Berlin, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04775-0, 2000. a, b, c
Helm, V., Humbert, A., and Miller, H.: Elevation and elevation change of Greenland and Antarctica derived from CryoSat-2, The Cryosphere, 8, 1539–1559, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1539-2014, 2014. a
Herron, M. M. and Langway, C. C.: Firn densification: an empirical model, J. Glaciol., 25, 373–385, https://doi.org/10.3189/S0022143000015239, 1980. a, b
Hofstede, C., Beyer, S., Corr, H., Eisen, O., Hattermann, T., Helm, V., Neckel, N., Smith, E. C., Steinhage, D., Zeising, O., and Humbert, A.: Evidence for a grounding line fan at the onset of a basal channel under the ice shelf of Support Force Glacier, Antarctica, revealed by reflection seismics, The Cryosphere, 15, 1517–1535, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1517-2021, 2021a. a, b, c, d, e, f, g
Hofstede, C., Beyer, S., Corr, H. F. J., Eisen, O., Hattermann, T., Helm, V.,
Neckel, N., Smith, E. C., Steinhage, D., Zeising, O., and Humbert, A.:
Seismic reflection data of a basal channel and ocean cavity at the ice
shelf-grounding line area of Support Force Glacier, Filchner Ice Shelf,
Antarctica, PANGAEA [data set],https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.932278, 2021b. a, b, c, d, e, f, g
Holland, D. M. and Jenkins, A.: Modeling Thermodynamic Ice–Ocean Interactions at the Base of an Ice Shelf, J. Phys. Oceanogr., 29, 1787–1800, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0485(1999)029<1787:MTIOIA>2.0.CO;2, 1999. a
Holland, P. R. and Kwok, R.: Wind-driven trends in Antarctic sea-ice drift,
Nat. Geosci., 5, 872–875, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1627, 2012. a
Howat, I., Morin, P., Porter, C., and Noh, M.-J.: The Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica, Version V1, Harvard Dataverse [data set], https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/SAIK8B, 2018. a, b
Howat, I. M., Porter, C., Smith, B. E., Noh, M.-J., and Morin, P.: The Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica, The Cryosphere, 13, 665–674, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-665-2019, 2019. a, b
Humbert, A., Steinhage, D., Helm, V., Hoerz, S., Berendt, J., Leipprand, E., Christmann, J., Plate, C., and Müller, R.: On the link between surface and basal structures of the Jelbart Ice Shelf, Antarctica, J. Glaciol., 61, 975–986, https://doi.org/10.3189/2015JoG15J023, 2015. a, b
Humbert, A., Steinhage, D., Helm, V., Beyer, S., and Kleiner, T.: Missing
evidence of widespread subglacial lakes at Recovery Glacier, Antarctica,
J. Geophys. Res.-Earth, 123, 2802–2826,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2017JF004591, 2018. a, b
Jenkins, A. and Doake, C.: Ice-ocean interaction on Ronne Ice Shelf,
Antarctica, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 96, 791–813,
https://doi.org/10.1029/90JC01952, 1991. a
Jenkins, A., Corr, H. F., Nicholls, K. W., Stewart, C. L., and Doake, C. S.:
Interactions between ice and ocean observed with phase-sensitive radar near
an Antarctic ice-shelf grounding line, J. Glaciol., 52, 325–346,
https://doi.org/10.3189/172756506781828502, 2006. a, b, c, d
Jeofry, H., Ross, N., Le Brocq, A., Graham, A. G. C., Li, J., Gogineni, P.,
Morlighem, M., Jordan, T., and Siegert, M. J.: Hard rock landforms generate
130 km ice shelf channels through water focusing in basal corrugations,
Nat. Commun., 8, 4576, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06679-z, 2018. a
Jourdain, N. C., Mathiot, P., Merino, N., Durand, G., Le Sommer, J., Spence,
P., Dutrieux, P., and Madec, G.: Ocean circulation and sea-ice thinning
induced by melting ice shelves in the Amundsen Sea, J. Geophys.
Res.-Oceans, 122, 2550–2573, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JC012509, 2017. a
Kovacs, A., Gow, A. J., and Morey, R. M.: The in-situ dielectric constant of
polar firn revisited, Cold Reg. Sci. Technol., 23, 245–256,
https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-232X(94)00016-Q, 1995. a
Langley, K., von Deschwanden, A., Kohler, J., Sinisalo, A., Matsuoka, K.,
Hattermann, T., Humbert, A., Nøst, O., and Isaksson, E.: Complex network
of channels beneath an Antarctic ice shelf, Geophys. Res. Lett.,
41, 1209–1215, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL058947, 2014. a, b, c, d
Larour, E., Seroussi, H., Morlighem, M., and Rignot, E.: Continental scale,
high order, high spatial resolution, ice sheet modeling using the Ice Sheet
System Model (ISSM), J. Geophys. Res.-Earth, 117, F01022, https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JF002140, 2012. a, b, c
Le Brocq, A. M., Ross, N., Griggs, J. A., Bingham, R. G., Corr, H. F., Ferraccioli, F., Jenkins, A., Jordan, T. A., Payne, A. J., Rippin, D. M., and Siegert, M. J.: Evidence from ice shelves for channelized meltwater flow beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet, Nat. Geosci., 6, 945–948, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1977, 2013. a, b, c, d, e, f
Lee, E. H.: Elastic-plastic deformation at finite strains, J. Appl. Mech., 36, 1–6, https://doi.org/10.1115/1.3564580, 1969. a
Lindbäck, K., Moholdt, G., Nicholls, K. W., Hattermann, T., Pratap, B., Thamban, M., and Matsuoka, K.: Spatial and temporal variations in basal melting at Nivlisen ice shelf, East Antarctica, derived from phase-sensitive radars, The Cryosphere, 13, 2579–2595, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2579-2019, 2019. a
MacAyeal, D. R.: Thermohaline circulation below the Ross Ice Shelf: A
consequence of tidally induced vertical mixing and basal melting, J.
Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 89, 597–606, https://doi.org/10.1029/JC089iC01p00597, 1984. a
Marsh, O. J., Fricker, H. A., Siegfried, M. R., Christianson, K., Nicholls,
K. W., Corr, H. F., and Catania, G.: High basal melting forming a channel at the grounding line of Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, 250–255, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL066612, 2016. a, b, c, d
Martos, Y. M., Catalán, M., Jordan, T. A., Golynsky, A., Golynsky, D., Eagles,
G., and Vaughan, D. G.: Heat Flux Distribution of Antarctica Unveiled,
Geophys. Res. Lett., 44, 11417–11426, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075609, 2017. a, b
Millgate, T., Holland, P. R., Jenkins, A., and Johnson, H. L.: The effect of
basal channels on oceanic ice-shelf melting, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 118, 6951–6964, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JC009402, 2013. a
Morlighem, M.: MEaSUREs BedMachine Antarctica, Version 2, NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center [data set], Boulder, Colorado, USA, https://doi.org/10.5067/E1QL9HFQ7A8M, 2020. a, b, c
Morlighem, M., Rignot, E., Binder, T., Blankenship, D., Drews, R., Eagles, G., Eisen, O., Ferraccioli, F., Forsberg, R., Fretwell, P., Goel, V., Greenbaum, J. S., Gudmundsson, H., Guo, J., Helm, V., Hofstede, C., Howat, I., Humbert, A., Jokat, W., Karlsson, N. B., Lee, W. S., Matsuoka, K., Millan, R., Mouginot, J., Paden, J., Pattyn, F., Roberts, J., Rosier, S., Ruppel, A., Seroussi, H., Smith, E. C., Steinhage, D., Sun, B., van den Broeke, M. R., van Ommen, T. D., van Wessem, M., and Young, D. A.: Deep glacial troughs and stabilizing ridges unveiled beneath the margins of the Antarctic ice sheet, Nat. Geosci., 13, 132–137, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0510-8, 2020. a, b
Mouginot, J., Rignot, E., and Scheuchl, B.: MEaSUREs Phase-Based Antarctica Ice Velocity Map, Version 1, NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center [data set], Boulder, Colorado, USA, https://doi.org/10.5067/PZ3NJ5RXRH10, 2019a. a, b, c
Mouginot, J., Rignot, E., and Scheuchl, B.: Continent-Wide, Interferometric SAR Phase, Mapping of Antarctic Ice Velocity, Geophys. Res. Lett., 46, 9710–9718, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL083826, 2019b. a, b
Naughten, K. A., De Rydt, J., Rosier, S. H. R., Jenkins, A., Holland, P. R.,
and Ridley, J. K.: Two-timescale response of a large Antarctic ice shelf to climate change, Nat. Commun., 12, 1991,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22259-0, 2021. a
Neff, P., Ghiba, I.-D., and Lankeit, J.: The exponentiated Hencky-logarithmic strain energy. Part I: constitutive issues and rank-one convexity, J. Elasticity, 121, 143–234, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10659-015-9524-7, 2015. a
Nicholls, K. W.: Predicted reduction in basal melt rates of an Antarctic ice shelf in a warmer climate, Nature, 388, 460–462, https://doi.org/10.1038/41302, 1997. a, b
Nicholls, K. W.: The study of ice shelf-ocean interaction—techniques and recent results, Advances in Polar Science, 3, 222–230, https://doi.org/10.13679/j.advps.2018.3.00222, 2018. a
Nicholls, K. W., Corr, H. F., Stewart, C. L., Lok, L. B., Brennan, P. V., and
Vaughan, D. G.: A ground-based radar for measuring vertical strain rates and
time-varying basal melt rates in ice sheets and shelves, J. Glaciol., 61, 1079–1087, https://doi.org/10.3189/2015JoG15J073, 2015. a, b
Pattyn, F.: A new three-dimensional higher-order thermomechanical ice sheet model: Basic sensitivity, ice stream development, and ice flow across subglacial lakes, J. Geophys. Res.-Sol. Ea., 108, 2382, https://doi.org/10.1029/2002JB002329, 2003. a, b
Reeh, N., Mayer, C., Olesen, O. B., Christensen, E. L., and Thomsen, H. H.: Tidal movement of Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden glacier, northeast Greenland: observations and modelling, Ann. Glaciol., 31, 111–117, https://doi.org/10.3189/172756400781820408, 2000. a
Rignot, E. and Steffen, K.: Channelized bottom melting and stability of
floating ice shelves, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L02503,
https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL031765, 2008. a, b
Rizzoli, P., Martone, M., Gonzalez, C., Wecklich, C., Borla Tridon, D., Bräutigam, B., Bachmann, M., Schulze, D., Fritz, T., Huber, M., Wessel, B., Krieger, G., Zink, M., and Moreira, A.: Generation and performance assessment of the global TanDEM-X digital elevation model, ISPRS J. Photogramm., 132, 119–139, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2017.08.008, 2017. a, b
Schultz, T.: Viskoelastische Modellierung der Dynamik eines Gletschers als Antwort auf basales Schmelzen und die Oberflächenmassenbilanz, Master thesis, https://doi.org/10.26092/elib/1777, 2017. a
Sergienko, O.: Basal channels on ice shelves, J. Geophys. Res.-Earth, 118, 1342–1355, https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrf.20105, 2013. a
Seroussi, H., Nakayama, Y., Larour, E., Menemenlis, D., Morlighem, M., Rignot, E., and Khazendar, A.: Continued retreat of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica, controlled by bed topography and ocean circulation, Geophys.
Res. Lett., 44, 6191–6199, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL072910, 2017. a
Smith, B. E., Fricker, H. A., Joughin, I. R., and Tulaczyk, S.: An inventory of active subglacial lakes in Antarctica detected by ICESat (2003–2008), J. Glaciol., 55, 573–595, https://doi.org/10.3189/002214309789470879, 2009. a
Stanton, T., Shaw, W., Truffer, M., Corr, H., Peters, L., Riverman, K.,
Bindschadler, R., Holland, D., and Anandakrishnan, S.: Channelized ice
melting in the ocean boundary layer beneath Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica, Science, 341, 1236–1239, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1239373, 2013. a
Stewart, C. L., Christoffersen, P., Nicholls, K. W., Williams, M. J., and
Dowdeswell, J. A.: Basal melting of Ross Ice Shelf from solar heat
absorption in an ice-front polynya, Nat. Geosci., 12, 435,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0356-0, 2019. a, b, c
Sun, S., Hattermann, T., Pattyn, F., Nicholls, K. W., Drews, R., and Berger,
S.: Topographic shelf waves control seasonal melting near Antarctic ice
shelf grounding lines, Geophys. Res. Lett., 46, 9824–9832, 2019. a
Timmermann, R. and Hellmer, H.: Southern Ocean warming and increased ice shelf basal melting in the twenty-first and twenty-second centuries based on coupled ice-ocean finite-element modelling, Ocean Dynam., 63, 1011–1026, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-013-0642-0, 2013. a
Vaňková, I., Nicholls, K. W., and Corr, H. F. J.: The Nature of Ice Intermittently Accreted at the Base of Ronne Ice Shelf, Antarctica, Assessed Using Phase-Sensitive Radar, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 126, e2021JC017290, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JC017290, 2021. a
van Wessem, J., Reijmer, C., Morlighem, M., Mouginot, J., Rignot, E., Medley, B., Joughin, I., Wouters, B., Depoorter, M., Bamber, J., Lenaerts, J. T. M., Van De Berg, W. J., Van Den Broeke, M. R., and Van Meijgaard, E.: Improved representation of East Antarctic surface mass balance in a regional atmospheric climate model, J. Glaciol., 60, 761–770, https://doi.org/10.3189/2014JoG14J051, 2014. a, b, c, d, e
Vaughan, D. G., Corr, H. F., Bindschadler, R. A., Dutrieux, P., Gudmundsson, G. H., Jenkins, A., Newman, T., Vornberger, P., and Wingham, D. J.: Subglacial melt channels and fracture in the floating part of Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica, J. Geophys. Res.-Earth, 117, F03012, https://doi.org/10.1029/2012JF002360, 2012.
a
Washam, P., Nicholls, K. W., Münchow, A., and Padman, L.: Summer surface melt thins Petermann Gletscher Ice Shelf by enhancing channelized basal melt, J. Glaciol., 65, 662–674, https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2019.43, 2019. a
Wearing, M. G., Stevens, L. A., Dutrieux, P., and Kingslake, J.: Ice-Shelf Basal Melt Channels Stabilized by Secondary Flow, Geophys. Res. Lett., 48, e2021GL094872, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL094872, 2021. a, b
Xiao, H.: Hencky strain and Hencky model: extending history and ongoing tradition, Multidiscipline Modeling in Materials and Structures, 1, 1–52, https://doi.org/10.1163/1573611054455148, 2005. a
Zeising, O. and Humbert, A.: Indication of high basal melting at the EastGRIP drill site on the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream, The Cryosphere, 15, 3119–3128, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3119-2021, 2021. a, b, c
Zeising, O., Helm, V., Steinhage, D., and Humbert, A.: GNSS measurements at a basal melt channel of the southern Filchner Ice Shelf, Antarctica, PANGAEA [data set], https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.932441, 2021a. a
Zeising, O., Steinhage, D., and Humbert, A.: Autonomous phase-sensitive radar (ApRES) measurements at a basal melt channel of the southern Filchner Ice Shelf, Antarctica between 2016/17 and 2017/18, PANGAEA [data set], https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.932413, 2021b. a
Zeising, O., Steinhage, D., and Humbert, A.: Stake surface accumulation measurements at Filchnner Ice Shelf between December 2015/January 2016 and December 2016, PANGAEA [data set], https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.940252, 2021c. a
Zeising, O., Steinhage, D., and Humbert, A.: Melt rates of 44 repeated phase-sensitive radar point measurements between December 2015/January 2016 and December 2016 at the Filchner Ice Shelf, Antarctica, PANGAEA [data set], https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.941400, 2022a. a
Zeising, O., Steinhage, D., Nicholls, K. W., Corr, H. F. J., Stewart, C. L., and Humbert, A.: Basal melt of the southern Filchner Ice Shelf, Antarctica, The Cryosphere, 16, 1469–1482, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-1469-2022, 2022b. a, b
Short summary
Ice shelves are normally flat structures that fringe the Antarctic continent. At some locations they have channels incised into their underside. On Filchner Ice Shelf, such a channel is more than 50 km long and up to 330 m high. We conducted field measurements of basal melt rates and found a maximum of 2 m yr−1. Simulations represent the geometry evolution of the channel reasonably well. There is no reason to assume that this type of melt channel is destabilizing ice shelves.
Ice shelves are normally flat structures that fringe the Antarctic continent. At some locations...
