scholarly journals Assessing the subglacial lake coverage of Antarctica

2016 ◽  
Vol 57 (72) ◽  
pp. 109-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Goeller ◽  
Daniel Steinhage ◽  
Malte Thoma ◽  
Klaus Grosfeld
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
East Antarctica ◽  
Ice Dynamics ◽  
Potential Equation ◽  
Subglacial Lake ◽  
Covered Area ◽  
Radio Echo Sounding ◽  
Dronning Maud Land ◽  
Subglacial Lakes ◽  
The Antarctic

ABSTRACTLakes beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet are known to decrease traction at the ice base and therefore can have a great impact on ice dynamics. However, the total extent of Antarctic subglacial lakes is still unknown. We address this issue by combining modeling and remote-sensing strategies to predict potential lake locations using the general hydraulic potential equation. We are able to reproduce the majority of known lakes, as well as predict the existence of many new and so far undetected potential lakes. To validate our predictions, we analyzed ice-penetrating radar profiles from radio-echo sounding flights acquired over 1994–2013 in Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, and this led to the identification of 31 new subglacial lakes. Based on these findings, we estimate the total number of Antarctic subglacial lakes to be ~1300, a factor of three higher than the total number of lakes discovered to date. We estimate that only ~30% of all Antarctic subglacial lakes and ~65% of the total estimated lake-covered area have been discovered, and that lakes account for 0.6% of the Antarctic ice/bed interface.

scholarly journals Forty-seven new subglacial lakes in the 0–110° E sector of East Antarctica

2007 ◽  
Vol 53 (181) ◽  
pp. 289-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergey V. Popov ◽  
Valery N. Masolov
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
East Antarctica ◽  
Lake Area ◽  
Geothermal Heat ◽  
Subglacial Lake ◽  
Deep Faults ◽  
Radio Echo Sounding ◽  
Subglacial Lakes ◽  
Echo Sounding

AbstractDuring the summer field seasons of 1987–91, studies of central East Antarctica by airborne radio-echo sounding commenced. This scientific work continued in the 1990s in the Vostok Subglacial Lake area and along the traverse route from Mirny, and led to the discovery of 16 new subglacial water cavities in the areas of Domes Fuji and Argus and the Prince Charles Mountains. Twenty-nine subglacial water cavities were revealed in the area near Vostok, along with a feature we believe to be a subglacial river. Two subglacial lakes were discovered along the Mirny–Vostok traverse route. These are located 50 km north of Komsomolskaya station and under Pionerskaya station. We find high geothermal heat flux in the vicinity of the largest of the subglacial lakes, and suggest this may be due to their location over deep faults where additional mantle heat is available.

scholarly journals Lakes and subglacial hydrological networks around Dome C, East Antarctica

2003 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 252-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frédérique Rémy ◽  
Laurent Testut ◽  
Benoît Legrésy ◽  
Alessandro Forieri ◽  
Cesido Bianchi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Flow Regime ◽  
Flow Dynamics ◽  
Ice Flow ◽  
Subglacial Lake ◽  
Radio Echo Sounding ◽  
Fine Structures ◽  
Satellite Radar ◽  
Subglacial Lakes ◽  
Satellite Radar Altimetry

AbstractPrecise topography from European Remote-sensing Satellite radar altimetry and high density of airborne radio-echo sounding in the area surrounding Dome C, Antarctica, show a link between surface features and subglacial lakes. In this paper, we extend the study to fine structures by computing a curvature-based coefficient (cy) related to surface undulations. These coefficient variations reveal many surface undulations, and some elongated features of this parameter seem to link known subglacial lakes. A population of high values of this coefficient, assumed to correspond to transitions between sliding and non-sliding flow regime, strengthen the appearance of a network which would link most of the lakes in the area. The existence of such a network impacts on ice-flow dynamics and on subglacial-lake studies.

scholarly journals Detecting and Searching for subglacial lakes through airborne radio-echo sounding in Princess Elizabeth Land (PEL), Antarctica

2020 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 04002
Author(s):  
Xiangbin Cui ◽  
Shinan Lang ◽  
Jingxue Guo ◽  
Bo Sun
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Extreme Environment ◽  
Ice Flow ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Lake Vostok ◽  
Subglacial Lake ◽  
Radio Echo Sounding ◽  
Subglacial Lakes ◽  
Echo Sounding

Over 400 subglacial lakes were discovered in Antarctica through radio-echo sounding (RES) method and remote sensing. Subglacial lakes have significance in lubricating ice-bedrock interface and enhancing ice flow. Moreover, ancient lives may exist in the extreme environment. Since 2015, the “Snow Eagle 601” BT-67 airborne platform has been deployed and applied to map ice sheet and bedrock of Princess Elizabeth Land. One of great motivations of airborne surveys is to detect and search for subglacial lakes in the region. In this paper, we provided preliminary results of RES over both old and new discovered lakes, including Lake Vostok, a potential second large subglacial lake and other lakes beneath interior of the ice sheet in Antarctica.

scholarly journals Thirteen years of subglacial lake activity in Antarctica from multi-mission satellite altimetry

2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (76pt1) ◽  
pp. 42-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Siegfried ◽  
Helen A. Fricker
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Surface Expression ◽  
Ice Dynamics ◽  
Ice Cloud ◽  
Subglacial Lake ◽  
Near Term ◽  
Velocity Changes ◽  
Subglacial Lakes ◽  
The Antarctic

ABSTRACTThe ability to detect the surface expression of moving water beneath the Antarctic ice sheet by satellite has revealed a dynamic basal environment, with implications for regional ice dynamics, grounding-line stability, and fluxes of freshwater and nutrients to the Southern Ocean. Knowledge of subglacial activity on timescales important for near-term prediction of ice-sheet fluctuations (decadal to century) is limited by the short observational record of NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) laser altimetry mission used to generate the last continent-wide survey (2003–08). Here, we use synthetic aperture radar-interferometric-mode data from ESA's CryoSat-2 radar altimetry mission (2010–present), which samples 45 of the ICESat-derived subglacial lakes, to extend their time series to the end of 2016. The extended time series show that there have been surface-height changes at 20 of the 45 lakes since 2008, indicating that some of these features are persistent and potentially cyclic, while other features show negligible changes, suggesting these may be transient or nonhydrological features. Continued monitoring of active lakes for both height and velocity changes, as well as developing methods for identifying additional lakes, is critical to quantifying the full distribution of active subglacial lakes in Antarctica.

scholarly journals Dynamic influence of pinning points on marine ice-sheet stability: a numerical study in Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 2623-2635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lionel Favier ◽  
Frank Pattyn ◽  
Sophie Berger ◽  
Reinhard Drews
Keyword(s):  
Data Assimilation ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
East Antarctica ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Dynamics ◽  
Outlet Glacier ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Dronning Maud Land

Abstract. The East Antarctic ice sheet is likely more stable than its West Antarctic counterpart because its bed is largely lying above sea level. However, the ice sheet in Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, contains marine sectors that are in contact with the ocean through overdeepened marine basins interspersed by grounded ice promontories and ice rises, pinning and stabilising the ice shelves. In this paper, we use the ice-sheet model BISICLES to investigate the effect of sub-ice-shelf melting, using a series of scenarios compliant with current values, on the ice-dynamic stability of the outlet glaciers between the Lazarev and Roi Baudouin ice shelves over the next millennium. Overall, the sub-ice-shelf melting substantially impacts the sea-level contribution. Locally, we predict a short-term rapid grounding-line retreat of the overdeepened outlet glacier Hansenbreen, which further induces the transition of the bordering ice promontories into ice rises. Furthermore, our analysis demonstrated that the onset of the marine ice-sheet retreat and subsequent promontory transition into ice rise is controlled by small pinning points, mostly uncharted in pan-Antarctic datasets. Pinning points have a twofold impact on marine ice sheets. They decrease the ice discharge by buttressing effect, and they play a crucial role in initialising marine ice sheets through data assimilation, leading to errors in ice-shelf rheology when omitted. Our results show that unpinning increases the sea-level rise by 10 %, while omitting the same pinning point in data assimilation decreases it by 10 %, but the more striking effect is in the promontory transition time, advanced by two centuries for unpinning and delayed by almost half a millennium when the pinning point is missing in data assimilation. Pinning points exert a subtle influence on ice dynamics at the kilometre scale, which calls for a better knowledge of the Antarctic margins.

scholarly journals Characteristics of ice rises and ice rumples in Dronning Maud Land and Enderby Land, Antarctica

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (260) ◽  
pp. 1064-1078
Author(s):  
Vikram Goel ◽  
Kenichi Matsuoka ◽  
Cesar Deschamps Berger ◽  
Ian Lee ◽  
Jørgen Dall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Ice Thickness ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Dynamics ◽  
Surface Mass ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
The Past ◽  
Dronning Maud Land ◽  
The Antarctic

AbstractIce rises and rumples, locally grounded features adjacent to ice shelves, are relatively small yet play significant roles in Antarctic ice dynamics. Their roles generally depend upon their location within the ice shelf and the stage of the ice-sheet retreat or advance. Large, long-stable ice rises can be excellent sites for deep ice coring and paleoclimate study of the Antarctic coast and the Southern Ocean, while small ice rises tend to respond more promptly and can be used to reveal recent changes in regional mass balance. The coasts of Dronning Maud Land (DML) and Enderby Land in East Antarctica are abundant with these features. Here we review existing knowledge, presenting an up-to-date status of research in these regions with focus on ice rises and rumples. We use regional datasets (satellite imagery, surface mass balance and ice thickness) to analyze the extent and surface morphology of ice shelves and characteristic timescales of ice rises. We find that large parts of DML have been changing over the past several millennia. Based on our findings, we highlight ice rises suitable for drilling ice cores for paleoclimate studies as well as ice rises suitable for deciphering ice dynamics and evolution in the region.

scholarly journals Numerical modelling of ice-sheet dynamics across the Vostok subglacial lake, central East Antarctica

2000 ◽  
Vol 46 (153) ◽  
pp. 197-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Mayer ◽  
Martin J. Siegert
Keyword(s):  
Lake Water ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
East Antarctica ◽  
Particle Flow ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Flow Paths ◽  
Ice Dynamics ◽  
Subglacial Lake ◽  
Grounding Line ◽  
Ice Sheet Dynamics

AbstractA numerical model of the ice-sheet/ice-shelf transition was used to investigate ice-sheet dynamics across the large subglacial lake beneath Vostok station, central East Antarctica. European Remote-sensing Satellite (ERS-1) altimetry of the ice surface and 60 MHz radio-echo sounding (RES) of the ice-sheet base and internal ice-sheet layering were used to develop a conceptual flowline across the ice sheet, which the model used as input. The model calculates horizontal and vertical velocities and stresses, from which particle flow paths can be obtained, and the ice-sheet temperature distribution. An inverse approach to modelling was adopted, where particle flow paths were forced to match those identified from internal RES layering. Results show that ice dynamics across the inflow grounding line are similar to an ice-sheet/ice-shelf transition. Model particle flow paths match internal RES layering when ice is (a) taken away from the ice base across the first 2 km of the flowline over the lake and (b) added to the base across the remainder of the lake. We contend that the process causing this transfer of ice is likely to be melting of ice and freezing of water at the ice–water interface. Other explanations, such as enhanced rates of accumulation over the grounding line, or three-dimensional convergent/divergent flow of ice are inconsistent with available measurements. Such melting and refreezing would be responsible for circulation and mixing of at least the surface layers of the lake water. Our model suggests that several tens of metres of refrozen “basal ice” would accrete from lake water to the ice sheet before the ice regrounds.

scholarly journals A revised inventory of Antarctic subglacial lakes

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARTIN J. SIEGERT ◽  
SASHA CARTER ◽  
IGNAZIO TABACCO ◽  
SERGEY POPOV ◽  
DONALD D. BLANKENSHIP
Keyword(s):  
East Antarctica ◽  
Large Lake ◽  
Dome A ◽  
Lake Vostok ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Us ◽  
Radio Echo Sounding ◽  
Subglacial Lakes ◽  
Lake Type ◽  
Echo Sounding

The locations and details of 145 Antarctic subglacial lakes are presented. The inventory is based on a former catalogue of lake-type features, which has been subsequently reanalysed, and on the results from three additional datasets. The first is from Italian radio-echo sounding (RES) of the Dome C region of East Antarctica, from which 14 new lakes are identified. These data also show that, in a number of occasions, multiple lake-type reflectors thought previously to be individual lakes are in fact reflections from the same relatively large lake. This reduces the former total of lake-type reflectors by six, but also adds a significant level of information to these particular lakes. The second dataset is from a Russian survey of the Dome A and Dome F regions of East Antarctica, which provides evidence of 18 new lakes and extends the coverage of the inventory considerably. The third dataset comprises three airborne RES surveys undertaken by the US in East Antarctica over the last five years, from which forty three new lakes have been identified. Reference to information on Lake Vostok, from Italian and US surveys taken in the last few years, is now included.

Detecting active subglacial lakes beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet using ArcticDEM

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jade Bowling ◽  
Amber Leeson ◽  
Malcolm McMillan ◽  
Stephen Livingstone ◽  
Andrew Sole
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Surface Elevation ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Ice Dynamics ◽  
Subglacial Lake ◽  
Flow Speeds ◽  
Elevation Data ◽  
Hydrological System ◽  
Subglacial Lakes

<p>A total of 63 subglacial lakes have been documented beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet using a combination of radio-echo sounding and surface elevation change measurements. Of these, only 7 lakes have shown evidence of hydrological activity over the period 2001-2018. Draining lakes have been observed to drive transient changes in local ice flow speeds in Antarctica. The sudden discharge of water during a subglacial lake outburst event causes the subglacial lake roof to subside, which propagates to the surface, resulting in the formation of collapse basins (typically ~50-70 m in depth). These surface features can be detected using remote sensing techniques.</p><p>Whilst over 100 active subglacial lakes have been identified in Antarctica, predominantly beneath ice streams, little is known about the extent, volume of water stored and residence times of active subglacial lakes in Greenland, together with any potential influence of drainage events on local ice dynamics and sediment evacuation rates. Here, we explore the potential of the high resolution ArcticDEM stereogrammetric digital surface model (DSM) open source dataset, generated from satellite optical imagery, to identify and monitor subglacial lake-derived collapse basins. The ArcticDEM provides 2 m time-stamped surface elevation data, covering ~160 million km<sup>2</sup>, offering an exciting opportunity to map elevation changes between 2009-2017. This study presents the first effort to utilise ArcticDEM data at an ice-sheet scale to identify and monitor active subglacial lakes beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet, which we hope will ultimately improve our understanding of its complex subglacial hydrological system.</p>

scholarly journals Potential subglacial lake locations and meltwater drainage pathways beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 1721-1740 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. J. Livingstone ◽  
C. D. Clark ◽  
J. Woodward ◽  
J. Kingslake
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Simplified Approach ◽  
Subglacial Lake ◽  
Ice Stream ◽  
Geophysical Surveys ◽  
Subglacial Lakes ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Subglacial Drainage

Abstract. We use the Shreve hydraulic potential equation as a simplified approach to investigate potential subglacial lake locations and meltwater drainage pathways beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. We validate the method by demonstrating its ability to recall the locations of >60% of the known subglacial lakes beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet. This is despite uncertainty in the ice-sheet bed elevation and our simplified modelling approach. However, we predict many more lakes than are observed. Hence we suggest that thousands of subglacial lakes remain to be found. Applying our technique to the Greenland Ice Sheet, where very few subglacial lakes have so far been observed, recalls 1607 potential lake locations, covering 1.2% of the bed. Our results will therefore provide suitable targets for geophysical surveys aimed at identifying lakes beneath Greenland. We also apply the technique to modelled past ice-sheet configurations and find that during deglaciation both ice sheets likely had more subglacial lakes at their beds. These lakes, inherited from past ice-sheet configurations, would not form under current surface conditions, but are able to persist, suggesting a retreating ice-sheet will have many more subglacial lakes than advancing ones. We also investigate subglacial drainage pathways of the present-day and former Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Key sectors of the ice sheets, such as the Siple Coast (Antarctica) and NE Greenland Ice Stream system, are suggested to have been susceptible to subglacial drainage switching. We discuss how our results impact our understanding of meltwater drainage, basal lubrication and ice-stream formation.

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