Short-Timescale Dynamics of Marine-terminating Glaciers in Western Greenland
Iceberg calving is a major component of glacier mass ablation that is not well understood due to a lack of detailed temporal and spatial observations. For better understanding, it is critical to examine processes occurring on the time scale of calving processes, sub-daily to sub-hourly. Current sate...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Other Authors: | |
Format: | Other/Unknown Material |
Language: | English |
Published: |
eScholarship, University of California
2020
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://escholarship.org/uc/item/58c8c723 |
id |
ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org/ark:/13030/qt58c8c723 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org/ark:/13030/qt58c8c723 2023-05-15T16:21:05+02:00 Short-Timescale Dynamics of Marine-terminating Glaciers in Western Greenland Kane, Emily Rignot, Eric 2020-01-01 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/58c8c723 en eng eScholarship, University of California qt58c8c723 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/58c8c723 public Environmental science Remote sensing Geophysics Calving Glaciology Greenland InSAR Marine-terminating glaciers Terrestrial Radar etd 2020 ftcdlib 2021-01-01T18:59:13Z Iceberg calving is a major component of glacier mass ablation that is not well understood due to a lack of detailed temporal and spatial observations. For better understanding, it is critical to examine processes occurring on the time scale of calving processes, sub-daily to sub-hourly. Current satellites are not able to observe the same location at time scales small enough to measure sub-daily phenomena. This research aims to increase the temporal resolution of ice speed and elevation measurements during the calving season to allow for analysis of short-term variations that are otherwise unobserved. We measure glacier speed and surface elevation at 3-minute intervals using a portable radar interferometer at three marine-terminating glaciers in West Greenland over two summer field campaigns. We detect diurnal variations in glacier speed caused by tidal height changes that propagate far inland, the effect of which varies by glacier but are consistent with simple models where basal stress is tidally modulated. We find no speed up from ice shedding off the calving face or the detachment of floating ice blocks, as expected. We detect a 30% speedup within a few hundred meters of the ice front that persists for days when calving removes full thickness grounded ice blocks. Within one ice thickness from the calving front, we detect strain rates 2 to 3 times larger than observable from satellite data, which has implications for studying iceberg calving as a fracturing process, in particular to select an appropriate value of the threshold tensile stress necessary for ice cliff failure. Other/Unknown Material glacier Greenland University of California: eScholarship Greenland |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental science Remote sensing Geophysics Calving Glaciology Greenland InSAR Marine-terminating glaciers Terrestrial Radar |
spellingShingle |
Environmental science Remote sensing Geophysics Calving Glaciology Greenland InSAR Marine-terminating glaciers Terrestrial Radar Kane, Emily Short-Timescale Dynamics of Marine-terminating Glaciers in Western Greenland |
topic_facet |
Environmental science Remote sensing Geophysics Calving Glaciology Greenland InSAR Marine-terminating glaciers Terrestrial Radar |
description |
Iceberg calving is a major component of glacier mass ablation that is not well understood due to a lack of detailed temporal and spatial observations. For better understanding, it is critical to examine processes occurring on the time scale of calving processes, sub-daily to sub-hourly. Current satellites are not able to observe the same location at time scales small enough to measure sub-daily phenomena. This research aims to increase the temporal resolution of ice speed and elevation measurements during the calving season to allow for analysis of short-term variations that are otherwise unobserved. We measure glacier speed and surface elevation at 3-minute intervals using a portable radar interferometer at three marine-terminating glaciers in West Greenland over two summer field campaigns. We detect diurnal variations in glacier speed caused by tidal height changes that propagate far inland, the effect of which varies by glacier but are consistent with simple models where basal stress is tidally modulated. We find no speed up from ice shedding off the calving face or the detachment of floating ice blocks, as expected. We detect a 30% speedup within a few hundred meters of the ice front that persists for days when calving removes full thickness grounded ice blocks. Within one ice thickness from the calving front, we detect strain rates 2 to 3 times larger than observable from satellite data, which has implications for studying iceberg calving as a fracturing process, in particular to select an appropriate value of the threshold tensile stress necessary for ice cliff failure. |
author2 |
Rignot, Eric |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Kane, Emily |
author_facet |
Kane, Emily |
author_sort |
Kane, Emily |
title |
Short-Timescale Dynamics of Marine-terminating Glaciers in Western Greenland |
title_short |
Short-Timescale Dynamics of Marine-terminating Glaciers in Western Greenland |
title_full |
Short-Timescale Dynamics of Marine-terminating Glaciers in Western Greenland |
title_fullStr |
Short-Timescale Dynamics of Marine-terminating Glaciers in Western Greenland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Short-Timescale Dynamics of Marine-terminating Glaciers in Western Greenland |
title_sort |
short-timescale dynamics of marine-terminating glaciers in western greenland |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/58c8c723 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
glacier Greenland |
genre_facet |
glacier Greenland |
op_relation |
qt58c8c723 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/58c8c723 |
op_rights |
public |
_version_ |
1766009105419337728 |