Characteristics of the 1979–2020 Antarctic firn layer simulated with IMAU-FDM v1.2A

Veldhuijsen, Sanne B. M.; van de Berg, Willem Jan; Brils, Max; Kuipers Munneke, Peter; van den Broeke, Michiel R.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1675-2023

Articles | Volume 17, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1675-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1675-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 4

Research article

|

17 Apr 2023

Research article |

| 17 Apr 2023

Characteristics of the 1979–2020 Antarctic firn layer simulated with IMAU-FDM v1.2A

Sanne B. M. Veldhuijsen, Willem Jan van de Berg, Max Brils, Peter Kuipers Munneke, and Michiel R. van den Broeke

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1675-2023-supplement

Data sets

Gridded surface elevation changes from multi-mission satellite altimetry 1978-2017 Ludwig Schröder, Martin Horwath, Reinhard Dietrich, Veit Helm, Michiel R. van den Broeke, and Stefan R. M. Ligtenberg https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.897390

Model code and software

IMAU-FDM v1.2G GDM release (v1.2G) Max Brils, Peter Kuipers Munneke, Willem Jan Van de Berg, and Michiel Van den Broeke https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5172513

Short summary

Firn is the transition of snow to glacier ice and covers 99 % of the Antarctic ice sheet. Knowledge about the firn layer and its variability is important, as it impacts satellite-based estimates of ice sheet mass change. Also, firn contains pores in which nearly all of the surface melt is retained. Here, we improve a semi-empirical firn model and simulate the firn characteristics for the period 1979–2020. We evaluate the performance with field and satellite measures and test its sensitivity.