Impact of tides on calving patterns at Kronebreen, Svalbard : insights from three-dimensional ice dynamical modelling

Understanding calving processes and their controls is of importance for reducing uncertainty in sea level rise estimates. The impact of tidal fluctuations and frontal melt on calving patterns has been researched through both modelling and observational studies but remains uncertain and may vary from glacier to glacier. In this study, we isolate various different impacts of tidal fluctuations on a glacier terminus to understand their influence on the timing of calving events in a model of Kronebreen, Svalbard, for the duration of 1 month. In addition, we impose a simplified frontal melt parameterisation onto the calving front in order to allow for an undercut to develop over the course of the simulations. We find that calving events show a tidal signal when there is a small or no undercut, but, after a critical point, undercut-driven calving becomes dominant and drowns out the tidal signal. However, the relationship is complex, and large calving events show a tidal signal even with a large modelled undercut. The modelled undercut sizes are then compared to observational profiles, showing that undercuts of up to ca. 25 m are plausible but with a more complex geometry being evident in observations than that captured in the model. These findings highlight the complex interactions occurring at the calving front of Kronebreen and suggest further observational data and modelling work is needed to fully understand the hierarchy of controls on calving

GRANTSISM: An Excel™ ice sheet model for use in introductory Earth science courses

GRANTISM (GReenland and ANTarctic Ice Sheet Model) is an educational Excel™ model introduced by Pattyn (2006). Here, GRANTISM is amended to simulate the Svalbard-Barents-Sea Ice Sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum, an analogue for the contemporary West Antarctic Ice Sheet. A new name, “GRANTSISM,” is suggested; the added S represents Svalbard. GRANTSISM introduces students of bachelor's or master's programs in Earth sciences (first or second cycle program in the Bologna system for higher education), but with little or no background in numerical modeling, to basic ice sheet modeling. GRANTSISM provides hands-on learning experiences related to ice sheet dynamics in response to climate forcing, and fosters understanding of processes and feedbacks. GRANTSISM was successfully used in noncompulsory courses in which students have been able to reproduce paleo-ice sheet evolution scenarios discussed here as examples. Students progressed further by designing, developing, and analyzing their own modeling scenarios. Here, we describe GRANTSISM and report on how learning activities with GRANTSISM were assessed by students who had no prior experience in ice sheet modeling. The response rate for a noncompulsory survey of the learning activity was less than 40%. A subsequent control experiment with a compulsory survey, however, showed the same patterns of answers, so the student response is considered representative. First, GRANTSISM is concluded to be a highly attractive tool to introduce learners with an interest in ice sheet behavior to ice sheet modeling. Second, it triggers an interest for more in-depth learning experiences related to numerical ice sheet modeling

Tides modulate crevasse opening prior to a major calving event at Bowdoin Glacier, Northwest Greenland

This research is part of the Sun2ice project (ETH Grant ETH-12 16-2), supported by the Dr. Alfred and Flora Spälti and the ETH Zurich Foundation. Field work was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, grant 200021-153179/1, and the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology through the Arctic Challenge for Sustainability (ArCS) project. Implementation of the remeshing routine has been performed under the Project HPC-EUROPA3 (INFRAIA-2016-1-730897), with the support of the EC Research Innovation Action under the H2020 Programme.Retreat of calving glaciers worldwide has contributed substantially to sea-level rise in recent decades. Mass loss by calving contributes significantly to the uncertainty of sea-level rise projections. At Bowdoin Glacier, Northwest Greenland, most calving occurs by a few large events resulting from kilometre-scale fractures forming parallel to the calving front. High-resolution terrestrial radar interferometry data of such an event reveal that crevasse opening is fastest at low tide and accelerates during the final 36 h before calving. Using the ice flow model Elmer/Ice, we identify the crevasse water level as a key driver of modelled opening rates. Sea water-level variations in the range of local tidal amplitude (1 m) can reproduce observed opening rate fluctuations, provided crevasse water level is at least 4 m above the low-tide sea level. The accelerated opening rates within the final 36 h before calving can be modelled by additional meltwater input into the crevasse, enhanced ice cliff undercutting by submarine melt, ice damage increase due to tidal cyclic fatigue, crevasse deepening or a combination of these processes. Our results highlight the influence of surface meltwater and tides on crevasse opening leading to major calving events at grounded tidewater glaciers such as Bowdoin.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Thinning leads to calving-style changes at Bowdoin Glacier, Greenland

This research has been supported by the Alfred and Flora Spälti Fund and the ETH Zurich Foundation (Sun2ice; grant no. ETH-12 16-2); the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant nos. 200021-153179/1 and PP00P2_183719); the SPI Exploratory Grants 2018 awarded to Fabian Walter and Guillaume Jouvet; the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology through the GRENE Arctic Climate Research Project and the Arctic Challenge for Sustainability (ArCS) project; and by NERC (CALISMO: Calving Laws for Ice Sheet Models; grant no. NE/P011365/1).Ice mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet is the largest single contributor to sea level rise in the 21st century. The mass loss rate has accelerated in recent decades mainly due to thinning and retreat of its outlet glaciers. The diverse calving mechanisms responsible for tidewater glacier retreat are not fully understood yet. Since a tidewater glacier's sensitivity to external forcings depends on its calving style, detailed insight into calving processes is necessary to improve projections of ice sheet mass loss by calving. As tidewater glaciers are mostly thinning, their calving styles are expected to change. Here, we study calving behaviour changes under a thinning regime at Bowdoin Glacier, north-western Greenland, by combining field and remote-sensing data from 2015 to 2019. Previous studies showed that major calving events in 2015 and 2017 were driven by hydro-fracturing and melt-undercutting. New observations from uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery and a GPS network installed at the calving front in 2019 suggest ungrounding and buoyant calving have recently occurred as they show (1) increasing tidal modulation of vertical motion compared to previous years, (2) absence of a surface crevasse prior to calving, and (3) uplift and horizontal surface compression prior to calving. Furthermore, an inventory of calving events from 2015 to 2019 based on satellite imagery provides additional support for a change towards buoyant calving since it shows an increasing occurrence of calving events outside of the melt season. The observed change in calving style could lead to a possible retreat of the terminus, which has been stable since 2013. We therefore highlight the need for high-resolution monitoring to detect changing calving styles and numerical models that cover the full spectrum of calving mechanisms to improve projections of ice sheet mass loss by calving.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Season of Sampling and Season of Birth Influence Serotonin Metabolite Levels in Human Cerebrospinal Fluid

BACKGROUND: Animal studies have revealed seasonal patterns in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) monoamine (MA) turnover. In humans, no study had systematically assessed seasonal patterns in CSF MA turnover in a large set of healthy adults. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Standardized amounts of CSF were prospectively collected from 223 healthy individuals undergoing spinal anesthesia for minor surgical procedures. The metabolites of serotonin (5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, 5-HIAA), dopamine (homovanillic acid, HVA) and norepinephrine (3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol, MPHG) were measured using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Concentration measurements by sampling and birth dates were modeled using a non-linear quantile cosine function and locally weighted scatterplot smoothing (LOESS, span = 0.75). The cosine model showed a unimodal season of sampling 5-HIAA zenith in April and a nadir in October (p-value of the amplitude of the cosine = 0.00050), with predicted maximum (PC(max)) and minimum (PC(min)) concentrations of 173 and 108 nmol/L, respectively, implying a 60% increase from trough to peak. Season of birth showed a unimodal 5-HIAA zenith in May and a nadir in November (p = 0.00339; PC(max) = 172 and PC(min) = 126). The non-parametric LOESS showed a similar pattern to the cosine in both season of sampling and season of birth models, validating the cosine model. A final model including both sampling and birth months demonstrated that both sampling and birth seasons were independent predictors of 5-HIAA concentrations. CONCLUSION: In subjects without mental illness, 5-HT turnover shows circannual variation by season of sampling as well as season of birth, with peaks in spring and troughs in fall

Monitoring and modelling the calving behaviour of Bowdoin Glacier, Northwest Greenland

ISSN:0374-005

Monitoring and modelling the calving behaviour of Bowdoin Glacier, Northwest Greenland

ISSN:0374-005

Coupling approximation levels for modeling ice flow on paleo time scales

Ice flow, forced by gravity is governed by the Full Stokes (FS) equations, which are computationally intensive to solve due to their non-linearity. Therefore, it has been unavoidable to approximate the FS equations when modeling growth and collapse of an ice sheet-shelf system, which requires simulating many thousands of years. However, the most popular Shallow Ice Approximation (SIA) and Shallow Shelf Approximation (SSA) are only accurate in certain parts of an ice sheet, both excluding the grounding line where the ice starts floating. Using the Finite Element software Elmer/Ice, SIA and SSA are dynamically coupled to FS aiming to maintain high precision and reduce computation time. An existing coupling of SIA and FS, called ISCAL [Ahlkrona et al., 2013a], is investigated for robustness. It is shown that instabilities in the FS solution limit ISCAL’s robustness. A novel way of iteratively coupling SSA and FS has been implemented into the open source Finite Element software Elmer/Ice and applied to both 2D and 3D conceptual marine ice sheets. The SSA-FS coupling shows to be very accurate, for both diagnostic and prognostic runs (error in velocity respectively below 0.5% and 5%). Grounding line dynamics of the SSA-FS coupling are similar to the FS model under a periodical forcing in a simulation covering 3000 years. The current implementation does not yield speed up in 2D due to inefficient assembly of the matrices to be solved. In 3D, the cpu time is reduced to two thirds of the cpu time of the FS model despite inefficient assembly. The total number of FS iterations in the SSA-FS coupling is comparable to the FS model, showing a large potential of reducing computation time since computation time of the SSA model is up to 3% of the FS model’s computation time when applied to the same ice shelf ramp. In future research, the SSA-FS coupling can be combined with ISCAL, but this requires both efficient implementation of the SSA-FS coupling and improved stabilization methods for FS.Applied Mathematic