Articles | Volume 17, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2607-2023
© Author(s) 2023. 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-17-2607-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
04 Jul 2023
Research article |
| 04 Jul 2023
| 04 Jul 2023
The impact of surface melt rate and catchment characteristics on Greenland Ice Sheet moulin inputs
Tim Hill
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
current address: Department of Earth Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada
Christine F. Dow
Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
Related authors
Tim Hill, Derek Bingham, Gwenn E. Flowers, and Matthew J. Hoffman
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 4045–4074, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-4045-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-4045-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Subglacial drainage models represent water flow beneath glaciers and ice sheets. Here, we train fast statistical models called Gaussian process (GP) emulators to accelerate subglacial drainage modelling by ~ 1000 times. We use the fast emulator predictions to show that three of the model parameters are responsible for > 90 % of the variance in model outputs. The fast GP emulators will enable future uncertainty quantification and calibration of these models.
Siobhan F. Killingbeck, Anja Rutishauser, Martyn J. Unsworth, Ashley Dubnick, Alison S. Criscitiello, James Killingbeck, Christine F. Dow, Tim Hill, Adam D. Booth, Brittany Main, and Eric Brossier
The Cryosphere, 18, 3699–3722, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3699-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3699-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
A subglacial lake was proposed to exist beneath Devon Ice Cap in the Canadian Arctic based on the analysis of airborne data. Our study presents a new interpretation of the subglacial material beneath the Devon Ice Cap from surface-based geophysical data. We show that there is no evidence of subglacial water, and the subglacial lake has likely been misidentified. Re-evaluation of the airborne data shows that overestimation of a critical processing parameter has likely occurred in prior studies.
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.
Tim Hill, Derek Bingham, Gwenn E. Flowers, and Matthew J. Hoffman
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 4045–4074, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-4045-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-4045-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Subglacial drainage models represent water flow beneath glaciers and ice sheets. Here, we train fast statistical models called Gaussian process (GP) emulators to accelerate subglacial drainage modelling by ~ 1000 times. We use the fast emulator predictions to show that three of the model parameters are responsible for > 90 % of the variance in model outputs. The fast GP emulators will enable future uncertainty quantification and calibration of these models.
Laurane Charrier, Amaury Dehecq, Lei Guo, Fanny Brun, Romain Millan, Nathan Lioret, Luke Copland, Nathan Maier, Christine Dow, and Paul Halas
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3409, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3409, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
While global annual glacier velocities are openly accessible, sub-annual velocity time series are still lacking. This hinders our ability to understand flow processes and the integration of these observations in numerical models. We introduce an open source Python package called TICOI to fuses multi-temporal and multi-sensor image-pair velocities produced by different processing chains to produce standardized sub-annual velocity products.
Adam J. Hepburn, Christine F. Dow, Antti Ojala, Joni Mäkinen, Elina Ahokangas, Jussi Hovikoski, Jukka-Pekka Palmu, and Kari Kajuutti
The Cryosphere, 18, 4873–4916, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-4873-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-4873-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Terrain formerly occupied by ice sheets in the last ice age allows us to parameterize models of basal water flow using terrain and data unavailable beneath current ice sheets. Using GlaDS, a 2D basal hydrology model, we explore the origin of murtoos, a specific landform found throughout Finland that is thought to mark the upper limit of channels beneath the ice. Our results validate many of the predictions of murtoo origins and demonstrate that such models can be used to explore past ice sheets.
Robert G. Bingham, Julien A. Bodart, Marie G. P. Cavitte, Ailsa Chung, Rebecca J. Sanderson, Johannes C. R. Sutter, Olaf Eisen, Nanna B. Karlsson, Joseph A. MacGregor, Neil Ross, Duncan A. Young, David W. Ashmore, Andreas Born, Winnie Chu, Xiangbin Cui, Reinhard Drews, Steven Franke, Vikram Goel, John W. Goodge, A. Clara J. Henry, Antoine Hermant, Benjamin H. Hills, Nicholas Holschuh, Michelle R. Koutnik, Gwendolyn J.-M. C. Leysinger Vieli, Emma J. Mackie, Elisa Mantelli, Carlos Martín, Felix S. L. Ng, Falk M. Oraschewski, Felipe Napoleoni, Frédéric Parrenin, Sergey V. Popov, Therese Rieckh, Rebecca Schlegel, Dustin M. Schroeder, Martin J. Siegert, Xueyuan Tang, Thomas O. Teisberg, Kate Winter, Shuai Yan, Harry Davis, Christine F. Dow, Tyler J. Fudge, Tom A. Jordan, Bernd Kulessa, Kenichi Matsuoka, Clara J. Nyqvist, Maryam Rahnemoonfar, Matthew R. Siegfried, Shivangini Singh, Verjan Višnjević, Rodrigo Zamora, and Alexandra Zuhr
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2593, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2593, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The ice sheets covering Antarctica have built up over millenia through successive snowfall events which become buried and preserved as internal surfaces of equal age detectable with ice-penetrating radar. This paper describes an international initiative to work together on this archival data to build a comprehensive 3-D picture of how old the ice is everywhere across Antarctica, and how this will be used to reconstruct past and predict future ice and climate behaviour.
Siobhan F. Killingbeck, Anja Rutishauser, Martyn J. Unsworth, Ashley Dubnick, Alison S. Criscitiello, James Killingbeck, Christine F. Dow, Tim Hill, Adam D. Booth, Brittany Main, and Eric Brossier
The Cryosphere, 18, 3699–3722, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3699-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-3699-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
A subglacial lake was proposed to exist beneath Devon Ice Cap in the Canadian Arctic based on the analysis of airborne data. Our study presents a new interpretation of the subglacial material beneath the Devon Ice Cap from surface-based geophysical data. We show that there is no evidence of subglacial water, and the subglacial lake has likely been misidentified. Re-evaluation of the airborne data shows that overestimation of a critical processing parameter has likely occurred in prior studies.
Christine F. Dow, Derek Mueller, Peter Wray, Drew Friedrichs, Alexander L. Forrest, Jasmin B. McInerney, Jamin Greenbaum, Donald D. Blankenship, Choon Ki Lee, and Won Sang Lee
The Cryosphere, 18, 1105–1123, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-1105-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-1105-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Ice shelves are a key control on Antarctic contribution to sea level rise. We examine the Nansen Ice Shelf in East Antarctica using a combination of field-based and satellite data. We find the basal topography of the ice shelf is highly variable, only partially visible in satellite datasets. We also find that the thinnest region of the ice shelf is altered over time by ice flow rates and ocean melting. These processes can cause fractures to form that eventually result in large calving events.
Koi McArthur, Felicity S. McCormack, and Christine F. Dow
The Cryosphere, 17, 4705–4727, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4705-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4705-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Using subglacial hydrology model outputs for Denman Glacier, East Antarctica, we investigated the effects of various friction laws and effective pressure inputs on ice dynamics modeling over the same glacier. The Schoof friction law outperformed the Budd friction law, and effective pressure outputs from the hydrology model outperformed a typically prescribed effective pressure. We propose an empirical prescription of effective pressure to be used in the absence of hydrology model outputs.
Felicity S. McCormack, Jason L. Roberts, Bernd Kulessa, Alan Aitken, Christine F. Dow, Lawrence Bird, Benjamin K. Galton-Fenzi, Katharina Hochmuth, Richard S. Jones, Andrew N. Mackintosh, and Koi McArthur
The Cryosphere, 17, 4549–4569, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4549-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4549-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Changes in Antarctic surface elevation can cause changes in ice and basal water flow, impacting how much ice enters the ocean. We find that ice and basal water flow could divert from the Totten to the Vanderford Glacier, East Antarctica, under only small changes in the surface elevation, with implications for estimates of ice loss from this region. Further studies are needed to determine when this could occur and if similar diversions could occur elsewhere in Antarctica due to climate change.
Whyjay Zheng, Shashank Bhushan, Maximillian Van Wyk De Vries, William Kochtitzky, David Shean, Luke Copland, Christine Dow, Renette Jones-Ivey, and Fernando Pérez
The Cryosphere, 17, 4063–4078, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4063-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4063-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We design and propose a method that can evaluate the quality of glacier velocity maps. The method includes two numbers that we can calculate for each velocity map. Based on statistics and ice flow physics, velocity maps with numbers close to the recommended values are considered to have good quality. We test the method using the data from Kaskawulsh Glacier, Canada, and release an open-sourced software tool called GLAcier Feature Tracking testkit (GLAFT) to help users assess their velocity maps.
Cited articles
Akima, H.: A new method of interpolation and smooth curve fitting based on
local procedures, J. ACM, 17, 589–602, 1970. a
Andrews, L. C., Catania, G. A., Hoffman, M. J., Gulley, J. D., Lüthi,
M. P., Ryser, C., Hawley, R. L., and Neumann, T. A.: Direct observations of
evolving subglacial drainage beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet, Nature,
514, 80–83, 2014. a
Andrews, L. C., Poinar, K., and Trunz, C.: Controls on Greenland moulin geometry and evolution from the Moulin Shape model, The Cryosphere, 16, 2421–2448, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2421-2022, 2022. a, b
Banwell, A., Hewitt, I., Willis, I., and Arnold, N.: Moulin density controls
drainage development beneath the Greenland ice sheet, J.
Geophys. Res.-Earth, 121, 2248–2269,
https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JF003801, 2016. a
Banwell, A. F., Arnold, N. S., Willis, I. C., Tedesco, M., and Ahlstrøm,
A. P.: Modeling supraglacial water routing and lake filling on the
Greenland Ice Sheet, J. Geophys. Res.-Earth,
117, F04012, https://doi.org/10.1029/2012JF002393, 2012. a, b, c, d
Bartholomew, I., Nienow, P., Sole, A., Mair, D., Cowton, T., and King, M. A.:
Short-term variability in Greenland Ice Sheet motion forced by
time-varying meltwater drainage: Implications for the relationship between
subglacial drainage system behavior and ice velocity,
J. Geophys. Res.-Earth, 117, F03002, https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JF002220, 2012. a
Chudley, T. R., Christoffersen, P., Doyle, S. H., Bougamont, M., Schoonman,
C. M., Hubbard, B., and James, M. R.: Supraglacial lake drainage at a
fast-flowing Greenlandic outlet glacier, P. Natl.
Acad. Sci. USA, 116, 25468–25477, 2019. a
Colbeck, S.: Water flow through snow overlying an impermeable boundary, Water
Resour. Res., 10, 119–123, 1974. a
Das, S. B., Joughin, I., Behn, M. D., Howat, I. M., King, M. A., Lizarralde,
D., and Bhatia, M. P.: Fracture propagation to the base of the Greenland
Ice Sheet during supraglacial lake drainage, Science, 320, 778–781,
2008. a
Gleason, C. J., Yang, K., Feng, D., Smith, L. C., Liu, K., Pitcher, L. H., Chu, V. W., Cooper, M. G., Overstreet, B. T., Rennermalm, A. K., and Ryan, J. C.: Hourly surface meltwater routing for a Greenlandic supraglacial catchment across hillslopes and through a dense topological channel network, The Cryosphere, 15, 2315–2331, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-2315-2021, 2021. a, b
Hill, T. and Dow, C. F.: The impact of surface melt rate and catchment characteristics on Greenland Ice Sheet moulin inputs, Zenodo [data set], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7968634, 2023. a
Johansson, A., Jansson, P., and Brown, I.: Spatial and temporal variations in
lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet, J. Hydrol., 476, 314–320,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2012.10.045, 2013. a
Koziol, C. P. and Arnold, N.: Modelling seasonal meltwater forcing of the velocity of land-terminating margins of the Greenland Ice Sheet, The Cryosphere, 12, 971–991, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-971-2018, 2018. a
Law, R., Arnold, N., Benedek, C., Tedesco, M., Banwell, A., and Willis, I.:
Over-winter persistence of supraglacial lakes on the Greenland Ice
Sheet: Results and insights from a new model, J. Glaciol., 66,
362–372, 2020. a
Leeson, A. A., Shepherd, A., Palmer, S., Sundal, A., and Fettweis, X.: Simulating the growth of supraglacial lakes at the western margin of the Greenland ice sheet, The Cryosphere, 6, 1077–1086, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-6-1077-2012, 2012. a, b, c, d
Mejia, J., Gulley, J., Trunz, C., Covington, M. D., Bartholomaus, T.,
Breithaupt, C., Xie, S., and Dixon, T. H.: Moulin density controls the timing
of peak pressurization within the Greenland Ice Sheet's subglacial
drainage system, Geophys. Res. Lett., 49, e2022GL100058, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL100058, 2022. a
Meyer, C. R. and Hewitt, I. J.: A continuum model for meltwater flow through compacting snow, The Cryosphere, 11, 2799–2813, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-2799-2017, 2017. a
Noël, B., van de Berg, W. J., Lhermitte, S., and van den Broeke, M. R.:
Rapid ablation zone expansion amplifies north Greenland mass loss, Sci.
Adv., 5, eaaw0123, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw0123, 2019 (data available at: https://www.projects.science.uu.nl/iceclimate/models/racmo-model.php, last access: 30 June 2023). a, b
Poinar, K. and Andrews, L. C.: Challenges in predicting Greenland supraglacial lake drainages at the regional scale, The Cryosphere, 15, 1455–1483, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-1455-2021, 2021. a
Porter, C., Morin, P., Howat, I., Noh, M.-J., Bates, B., Peterman, K., Keesey,
S., Schlenk, M., Gardiner, J., Tomko, K., Willis, M., Kelleher, C., Cloutier,
M., Husby, E., Foga, S., Nakamura, H., Platson, M., Wethington, Michael, J.,
Williamson, C., Bauer, G., Enos, J., Arnold, G., Kramer, W., Becker, P.,
Doshi, A., D'Souza, C., Cummens, P., Laurier, F., and Bojesen, M.:
ArcticDEM, Harvard Dataverse [data set], https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/OHHUKH, 2018. a, b, c, d
Smith, L., Andrews, L. C., Pitcher, L. H., Overstreet, B., Rennermalm, Å.,
Cooper, M. G., Cooley, S., Ryan, J. C., Miège, C., Kershner, C., and C. Simpson, E.:
Supraglacial river forcing of subglacial water storage and diurnal ice sheet
motion, Geophys. Res. Lett., 48, e2020GL091418, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL091418, 2021.
a, b, c, d
Smith, L. C., Yang, K., Pitcher, L. H., Overstreet, B. T., Chu, V. W.,
Rennermalm, Å. K., Ryan, J. C., Cooper, M. G., Gleason, C. J., and
Tedesco, M.: Direct measurements of meltwater runoff on the Greenland ice
sheet surface, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 114,
E10622–E10631, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1707743114, 2017. a, b, c, d
Sole, A., Nienow, P., Bartholomew, I., Mair, D., Cowton, T., Tedstone, A., and
King, M. A.: Winter motion mediates dynamic response of the Greenland Ice
Sheet to warmer summers, Geophys. Res. Lett., 40, 3940–3944,
https://doi.org/10.1002/grl.50764, 2013. a
Yang, K., Sommers, A., Andrews, L. C., Smith, L. C., Lu, X., Fettweis, X., and Li, M.: Intercomparison of surface meltwater routing models for the Greenland ice sheet and influence on subglacial effective pressures, The Cryosphere, 14, 3349–3365, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3349-2020, 2020. a
Yang, K., Smith, L. C., Andrews, L. C., Fettweis, X., and Li, M.: Supraglacial
Drainage Efficiency of the Greenland Ice Sheet Estimated From Remote
Sensing and Climate Models, J. Geophys. Res.-Earth,
127, e2021JF006269, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JF006269, 2022. a, b, c
Short summary
Water flow across the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet controls the rate of water flow to the glacier bed. Here, we simulate surface water flow for a small catchment on the southwestern Greenland Ice Sheet. Our simulations predict significant differences in the form of surface water flow in high and low melt years depending on the rate and intensity of surface melt. These model outputs will be important in future work assessing the impact of surface water flow on subglacial water pressure.
Water flow across the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet controls the rate of water flow to the...
