Rapid submarine ice melting in the grounding zones of ice shelves in West Antarctica.

Enhanced submarine ice-shelf melting strongly controls ice loss in the Amundsen Sea embayment (ASE) of West Antarctica, but its magnitude is not well known in the critical grounding zones of the ASE's major glaciers. Here we directly quantify bottom ice losses along tens of kilometres with airborne radar sounding of the Dotson and Crosson ice shelves, which buttress the rapidly changing Smith, Pope and Kohler glaciers. Melting in the grounding zones is found to be much higher than steady-state levels, removing 300-490 m of solid ice between 2002 and 2009 beneath the retreating Smith Glacier. The vigorous, unbalanced melting supports the hypothesis that a significant increase in ocean heat influx into ASE sub-ice-shelf cavities took place in the mid-2000s. The synchronous but diverse evolutions of these glaciers illustrate how combinations of oceanography and topography modulate rapid submarine melting to hasten mass loss and glacier retreat from West Antarctica

An Ultra-Wideband, Microwave Radar for Measuring Snow Thickness on Sea Ice and Mapping Near-Surface Internal Layers in Polar Firn

Sea ice is generally covered with snow, which can vary in thickness from a few centimeters to >1 m. Snow cover acts as a thermal insulator modulating the heat exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere, and it impacts sea-ice growth rates and overall thickness, a key indicator of climate change in polar regions. Snow depth is required to estimate sea-ice thickness using freeboard measurements made with satellite altimeters. The snow cover also acts as a mechanical load that depresses ice freeboard (snow and ice above sea level). Freeboard depression can result in flooding of the snow/ice interface and the formation of a thick slush layer, particularly in the Antarctic sea-ice cover. The Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) has developed an ultra-wideband, microwave radar capable of operation on long-endurance aircraft to characterize the thickness of snow over sea ice. The low-power, 100mW signal is swept from 2 to 8GHz allowing the air/snow and snow/ ice interfaces to be mapped with 5 c range resolution in snow; this is an improvement over the original system that worked from 2 to 6.5 GHz. From 2009 to 2012, CReSIS successfully operated the radar on the NASA P-3B and DC-8 aircraft to collect data on snow-covered sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic for NASA Operation IceBridge. The radar was found capable of snow depth retrievals ranging from 10cm to >1 m. We also demonstrated that this radar can be used to map near-surface internal layers in polar firn with fine range resolution. Here we describe the instrument design, characteristics and performance of the radar

Radar mapping of Isunnguata Sermia, Greenland

This is the published version. Copyright 2013 International Glaciological SocietyIce thickness estimates using advanced nadir sounding and tomographic radar processing techniques are compared and combined in a study of Isunnguata Sermia glacier, Greenland. Using an ensemble of Operation IceBridge flight lines spaced at 500 m intervals and running approximately along the flow direction, we find there is a statistically excellent comparison between subglacial terrains derived from two-dimensional tomography and gridded nadir sounding. Analysis shows that tomographic data better capture short wavelength (1–2 km) patterns in basal terrain, but interpolated nadir sounding data yield more spatially extensive and continuous coverage across the glacier, especially in deep subglacial troughs. Using derived surface and basal topography maps, we find that driving stress and measured and modeled surface velocity comparisons indicate that basal sliding is an important component of the glacier motion, but is also only weakly coupled to the detailed bed topography save for the deepest troughs. As might be expected for this land-terminating, relatively slow-moving glacier, the subglacial and proglacial topography is similar, suggesting the erosional processes acting on the modern glacier bed once helped sculpt the now exposed land

Improved GNSS-R bi-static altimetry and independent DEMs of Greenland and Antarctica from TechDemoSat-1

Improved Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets are presented, derived from Global Navigation Satellite Systems-Reflectometry (GNSS-R). This builds on a previous study (Cartwright et al., 2018) using GNSS-R to derive an Antarctic DEM but uses improved processing and an additional 13 months of measurements, totalling 46 months of data from the UK TechDemoSat-1 satellite. A median bias of under 10 m and root-mean-square (RMS) errors of under 53 m for the Antarctic and 166 m for Greenland are obtained, as compared to existing DEMs. The results represent, compared to the earlier study, a halving of the median bias to 9 m, an improvement in coverage of 18 %, and a four times higher spatial resolution (now gridded at 25 km). In addition, these are the first published satellite altimetry measurements of the region surrounding the South Pole. Comparisons south of 88° S yield RMS errors of less than 33 m when compared to NASA’s Operation IceBridge measurements. Differences between DEMs are explored and the future potential for ice sheet monitoring by this technique is noted

Open access data in polar and cryospheric remote sensing

This paper aims to introduce the main types and sources of remotely sensed data that are freely available and have cryospheric applications. We describe aerial and satellite photography, satellite-borne visible, near-infrared and thermal infrared sensors, synthetic aperture radar, passive microwave imagers and active microwave scatterometers. We consider the availability and practical utility of archival data, dating back in some cases to the 1920s for aerial photography and the 1960s for satellite imagery, the data that are being collected today and the prospects for future data collection; in all cases, with a focus on data that are openly accessible. Derived data products are increasingly available, and we give examples of such products of particular value in polar and cryospheric research. We also discuss the availability and applicability of free and, where possible, open-source software tools for reading and processing remotely sensed data. The paper concludes with a discussion of open data access within polar and cryospheric sciences, considering trends in data discoverability, access, sharing and use.A. Pope would like to acknowledge support from the Earth Observation Technology Cluster, a knowledge exchange project, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) under its Technology Clusters Programme, the U.S. National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program, Trinity College (Cambridge) and the Dartmouth Visiting Young Scientist program sponsored by the NASA New Hampshire Space Grant.This is the final published version. It's also available from MDPI at http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/6/7/6183

Improved GNSS-R bi-static altimetry and independent digital elevation models of Greenland and Antarctica from TechDemoSat-1

Improved digital elevation models (DEMs) of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are presented, which have been derived from Global Navigation Satellite Systems-Reflectometry (GNSS-R). This builds on a previous study (Cartwright et al., 2018) using GNSS-R to derive an Antarctic DEM but uses improved processing and an additional 13 months of measurements, totalling 46 months of data from the UK TechDemoSat-1 satellite. A median bias of under 10 m and root-mean-square errors (RMSEs) of under 53 m for the Antarctic and 166 m for Greenland are obtained, as compared to existing DEMs. The results represent, compared to the earlier study, a halving of the median bias to 9 m, an improvement in coverage of 18 %, and a 4 times higher spatial resolution (now gridded at 25 km). In addition, these are the first published satellite altimetry measurements of the region surrounding the South Pole. Comparisons south of 88∘ S yield RMSEs of less than 33 m when compared to NASA's Operation IceBridge measurements. Differences between DEMs are explored, the limitations of the technique are noted, and the future potential of GNSS-R for glacial ice studies is discussed

Mapping Ice Sheet Elevation and Elevation Change Using CryoSat-2 Radar Altimetry

In this thesis I develop novel methods and datasets, based on the processing of CryoSat-2 satellite radar altimeter data, to improve the understanding of retrieving measurements of surface elevation and elevation change over the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. First, I used 6 years of CryoSat-2 altimetry to create a model of the surface height of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and ice shelves. Posted at a resolution of 1 km, 94 % of the grounded ice sheet and 98 % of the floating ice shelves are observed, and the remaining grid cells North of 88 ° S are interpolated using ordinary kriging. Taking into account slope-dependent errors and the distribution of slopes across the ice sheet, I estimated the average accuracy of the DEM to be 9.5 m - a value that is comparable to, or better than that of other models derived from satellite radar and laser altimetry. Next, I developed a new technique to retrieve estimates of the depth distribution of radar backscatter from CryoSat-2 altimeter waveforms using a backscatter model. I then applied this model to chart spatial and temporal variatibility in radar backscatter and, for the first time, explicitly estimate radar penetration depth across the interior of the Greenland Ice Sheet. I then used this information to correct for artefacts in elevation trends derived from Cryosat-2 pulse-limited altimetry resulting from an episodic melt event which reset the radar scattering horizon. Incorporating the penetration depth into the surface height retrieval, I find improved agreement when compared to independent airborne laser altimeter data recorded over the same time period. Finally, I used CryoSat-2 altimetry to estimate seasonal elevation changes in the Greenland Ice Sheet. Using regional climate model simulations of height fluctuations due to surface process alone, I demonstrate that CryoSat-2 observations track elevation changes driven by melting and snowfall accumulation in the ice sheet ablation zone. I then mapped spatial and temporal variations in seasonal elevation change, demonstrating the ability of CryoSat-2 to monitor changes in Greenland which arise due to its meteorology

Airborne fine-resolution UHF radar: an approach to the study of englacial reflections, firn compaction and ice attenuation rates

This is the published version. Copyright 2015 International Glaciological SocietyWe have built and operated an ultra-wideband UHF pulsed-chirp radar for measuring firn stratigraphy from airborne platforms over the ice sheets of Greenland and West Antarctica. Our analysis found a wide range of capabilities, including imaging of post firn–ice transition horizons and sounding of shallow glaciers and ice shelves. Imaging of horizons to depths exceeding 600 m was possible in the colder interior regions of the ice sheet, where scattering from the ice surface and inclusions was minimal. The radar's high sensitivity and large dynamic range point to loss tangent variations as the dominant mechanism for these englacial reflective horizons. The radar is capable of mapping interfaces with reflection coefficients as low as –80 dB near the firn–ice transition and as low as –64 dB at depths of 600 m. We found that firn horizon reflectivity strongly mirrored density variance, a result of the near-unity interfacial transmission coefficients. Zones with differing compaction mechanisms were also apparent in the data. We were able to sound many ice shelves and areas of shallow ice. We estimated ice attenuation rates for a few locations, and our attenuation estimates for the Ross Ice Shelf, West Antarctica, appear to agree well with earlier reported results

Geostatistical methods for improved quantification of ice mass bed topography

Contribution to global mean sea level rise by ice sheets, ice caps and glaciers is accelerating. The total volume of water stored globally in terrestrial ice is estimated by a multitude of methods but principally by the interpolation of icethickness data. For the ice sheets and large Arctic ice caps, ice thickness is predominantly measured by airborne radio-echo sounding surveys which use radio waves to detect the bed of the surveyed ice mass. While such surveys are now extensive, large portions of ice masses are generally unsurveyed due to their size. In order to quantify ice thickness and subsequently ice volume over the entirety of an ice mass, interpolation of the input measurements is used. Throughout this whole process, uncertainties arise. Initially, from the radio-echo sounding (RES) survey and subsequently, in the interpolation. Compounding this is the absence of ground-truthing for measurements and interpolations due to the inaccessibility of ice mass beds. Hence, there is a requirement to find alternative means of quantifying uncertainty in ice thickness measurements and subsequently derived bed topography, and analyses made from these data to reduce the uncertainty in sea level change projections. This thesis develops and applies methods which aim to reduce uncertainty in ice thickness and bed topography datasets. Using high-resolution elevation data, this study exploits the likely similarity between currently ice-covered topography and formerly glaciated topography in the Arctic to generate datasets which provide alternative validation for ice mass bed topography. For the first time topographic error in RES surveying is quantified and corrections are formulated for treating future and historic ice thickness and bed topography data. Additionally, the propagation of these uncertainties through interpolations of bed topography is quantified and reduced, focussing on the Greenland Ice Sheet. Finally, the full suite of methods is applied to ice caps in the Canadian Arctic to generate, for the first time, ice cap wide topography for ice caps in the region that hold approximately a third of the freshwater outside of the continental ice sheets. By quantifying and reducing uncertainty in datasets of bed topography and ice thickness this thesis assesses the perceived stability of the continental ice sheets and large ice Arctic ice caps. From this, the implications of this for near and far term global mean sea-level rise are investigated

A high-resolution bedrock map for the Antarctic Peninsula

Assessing and projecting the dynamic response of glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula to changed atmospheric and oceanic forcing requires high-resolution ice thickness data as an essential geometric constraint for ice flow models. Here, we derive a complete bedrock data set for the Antarctic Peninsula north of 70° S on a 100 m grid. We calculate distributed ice thickness based on surface topography and simple ice dynamic modelling. Our approach is constrained with all available thickness measurements from Operation IceBridge and gridded ice flow speeds for the entire study region. The new data set resolves the rugged subglacial topography in great detail, indicates deeply incised troughs, and shows that 34% of the ice volume is grounded below sea level. The Antarctic Peninsula has the potential to raise global sea level by 69 ± 5 mm. In comparison to Bedmap2, covering all Antarctica on a 1 km grid, a significantly higher mean ice thickness (+48%) is found