The secret life of ice sails
ABSTRACT We present the first dedicated study into the phenomenon of ice sails . These are clean ice structures that protrude from the surface of a small number of debris-covered glaciers and can grow to heights of over 25 m. We draw together what is known about them from the academic/exploration li...
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2017.72 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143017000727 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/jog.2017.72 2024-09-15T18:15:39+00:00 The secret life of ice sails EVATT, GEOFFREY W. MAYER, CHRISTOPH MALLINSON, AMY ABRAHAMS, I. DAVID HEIL, MATTHIAS NICHOLSON, LINDSEY 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2017.72 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143017000727 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Journal of Glaciology volume 63, issue 242, page 1049-1062 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 journal-article 2017 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2017.72 2024-07-31T04:03:29Z ABSTRACT We present the first dedicated study into the phenomenon of ice sails . These are clean ice structures that protrude from the surface of a small number of debris-covered glaciers and can grow to heights of over 25 m. We draw together what is known about them from the academic/exploration literature and then analyse imagery. We show here that ice sails can develop by one of two mechanisms, both of which require clean ice to become surrounded by debris-covered ice, where the debris layer is shallow enough for the ice beneath it to melt faster than the clean ice. Once formed, ice sails can persist for decades, in an apparently steady state, before debris layer thickening eventually causes a reversal in the relative melt rates and the ice sails decay to merge back with the surrounding glacier surface. We support our image-based analysis with a surface energy-balance model and show that it compares well with available observations from Baltoro Glacier in the Karakoram. A sensitivity analysis of the model is performed and confirms the results from our empirical study that ice sails require a relatively high evaporative heat flux and/or a relatively low sensible heat flux in order to exist. Article in Journal/Newspaper Journal of Glaciology Cambridge University Press Journal of Glaciology 63 242 1049 1062 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Cambridge University Press |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
description |
ABSTRACT We present the first dedicated study into the phenomenon of ice sails . These are clean ice structures that protrude from the surface of a small number of debris-covered glaciers and can grow to heights of over 25 m. We draw together what is known about them from the academic/exploration literature and then analyse imagery. We show here that ice sails can develop by one of two mechanisms, both of which require clean ice to become surrounded by debris-covered ice, where the debris layer is shallow enough for the ice beneath it to melt faster than the clean ice. Once formed, ice sails can persist for decades, in an apparently steady state, before debris layer thickening eventually causes a reversal in the relative melt rates and the ice sails decay to merge back with the surrounding glacier surface. We support our image-based analysis with a surface energy-balance model and show that it compares well with available observations from Baltoro Glacier in the Karakoram. A sensitivity analysis of the model is performed and confirms the results from our empirical study that ice sails require a relatively high evaporative heat flux and/or a relatively low sensible heat flux in order to exist. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
EVATT, GEOFFREY W. MAYER, CHRISTOPH MALLINSON, AMY ABRAHAMS, I. DAVID HEIL, MATTHIAS NICHOLSON, LINDSEY |
spellingShingle |
EVATT, GEOFFREY W. MAYER, CHRISTOPH MALLINSON, AMY ABRAHAMS, I. DAVID HEIL, MATTHIAS NICHOLSON, LINDSEY The secret life of ice sails |
author_facet |
EVATT, GEOFFREY W. MAYER, CHRISTOPH MALLINSON, AMY ABRAHAMS, I. DAVID HEIL, MATTHIAS NICHOLSON, LINDSEY |
author_sort |
EVATT, GEOFFREY W. |
title |
The secret life of ice sails |
title_short |
The secret life of ice sails |
title_full |
The secret life of ice sails |
title_fullStr |
The secret life of ice sails |
title_full_unstemmed |
The secret life of ice sails |
title_sort |
secret life of ice sails |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2017.72 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143017000727 |
genre |
Journal of Glaciology |
genre_facet |
Journal of Glaciology |
op_source |
Journal of Glaciology volume 63, issue 242, page 1049-1062 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2017.72 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
container_volume |
63 |
container_issue |
242 |
container_start_page |
1049 |
op_container_end_page |
1062 |
_version_ |
1810453587301498880 |