Grounding line detection and ice flow characteristics in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, based on ERS SAR interferometry and airborne ice thickness sounding

• Main Author: Rack, Wolfgang
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2003
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Dronning Maud Land; Jutulstraumen; Kohnen; Stancomb-Wills Ice Stream; The Antarctic; West Antarctic Ice Sheet; Antarc*; Antarctica; EPICA; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/11115/; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.21575

Although the overall mass balance of Antarctica (and its impact on sea level change) is unknown, recent investigations show a pattern of high spatial and temporal variability. This is partly due to the variability in the flow behaviour of outlet glaciers in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Antarctic Peninsula. Mass Outflow and bottom melting directly seaward of the grounding line was derived by Rignot (2002) for several Antarctic catchment basins using SAR interferometry .In the framework of mass balance investigations of selected drainage basins in Dronning Maud Land, we analyse the ice mass transfer of several ice streams on the continental side of the grounding line by means of ERS SAR interferometry and airborne radio echo sounding (RES). Outlet glaciers investigated in this study drain a total area of about 350.000 km2 between 20°W and 0°W.RES campaigns were conducted mainly in the frame of the pre-site survey to locate a drilling location for the EPICA (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica) program. The drill site Kohnen (75°S, 0°E, 2850m) is located at the ice divide between the catchment basins of Jutulstraumen and Stancomb Wills ice stream. These surveys have been supplemented by several flights especially designed to fullfill the needs of mass balance investigations.