Scaling of instability timescales of Antarctic outlet glaciers based on one-dimensional similitude analysis
Recent observations and ice-dynamic modeling suggest that a marine ice-sheet instability (MISI) might have been triggered in West Antarctica. The corresponding outlet glaciers, Pine Island Glacier (PIG) and Thwaites Glacier (TG), showed significant retreat during at least the last 2 decades. While o...
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Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.34657/3535 https://oa.tib.eu/renate/handle/123456789/4906 |
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ftdatacite:10.34657/3535 2023-05-15T13:45:09+02:00 Scaling of instability timescales of Antarctic outlet glaciers based on one-dimensional similitude analysis Levermann, A. Feldmann, J. 2019 https://dx.doi.org/10.34657/3535 https://oa.tib.eu/renate/handle/123456789/4906 en eng Göttingen : Copernicus GmbH Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International CC BY 4.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 CC-BY glacier dynamics hydrological modeling ice sheet ice shelf instability one-dimensional modeling scale effect timescale uncertainty analysis Antarctica Pine Island Glacier Thwaites Glacier West Antarctica 550 article CreativeWork 2019 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.34657/3535 2022-04-01T09:37:59Z Recent observations and ice-dynamic modeling suggest that a marine ice-sheet instability (MISI) might have been triggered in West Antarctica. The corresponding outlet glaciers, Pine Island Glacier (PIG) and Thwaites Glacier (TG), showed significant retreat during at least the last 2 decades. While other regions in Antarctica have the topographic predisposition for the same kind of instability, it is so far unclear how fast these instabilities would unfold if they were initiated. Here we employ the concept of similitude to estimate the characteristic timescales of several potentially MISI-prone outlet glaciers around the Antarctic coast. Our results suggest that TG and PIG have the fastest response time of all investigated outlets, with TG responding about 1.25 to 2 times as fast as PIG, while other outlets around Antarctica would be up to 10 times slower if destabilized. These results have to be viewed in light of the strong assumptions made in their derivation. These include the absence of ice-shelf buttressing, the one-dimensionality of the approach and the uncertainty of the available data. We argue however that the current topographic situation and the physical conditions of the MISI-prone outlet glaciers carry the information of their respective timescale and that this information can be partially extracted through a similitude analysis. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Pine Island Pine Island Glacier Thwaites Glacier West Antarctica DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Antarctic The Antarctic West Antarctica Pine Island Glacier ENVELOPE(-101.000,-101.000,-75.000,-75.000) Thwaites Glacier ENVELOPE(-106.750,-106.750,-75.500,-75.500) Misi ENVELOPE(26.683,26.683,66.617,66.617) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftdatacite |
language |
English |
topic |
glacier dynamics hydrological modeling ice sheet ice shelf instability one-dimensional modeling scale effect timescale uncertainty analysis Antarctica Pine Island Glacier Thwaites Glacier West Antarctica 550 |
spellingShingle |
glacier dynamics hydrological modeling ice sheet ice shelf instability one-dimensional modeling scale effect timescale uncertainty analysis Antarctica Pine Island Glacier Thwaites Glacier West Antarctica 550 Levermann, A. Feldmann, J. Scaling of instability timescales of Antarctic outlet glaciers based on one-dimensional similitude analysis |
topic_facet |
glacier dynamics hydrological modeling ice sheet ice shelf instability one-dimensional modeling scale effect timescale uncertainty analysis Antarctica Pine Island Glacier Thwaites Glacier West Antarctica 550 |
description |
Recent observations and ice-dynamic modeling suggest that a marine ice-sheet instability (MISI) might have been triggered in West Antarctica. The corresponding outlet glaciers, Pine Island Glacier (PIG) and Thwaites Glacier (TG), showed significant retreat during at least the last 2 decades. While other regions in Antarctica have the topographic predisposition for the same kind of instability, it is so far unclear how fast these instabilities would unfold if they were initiated. Here we employ the concept of similitude to estimate the characteristic timescales of several potentially MISI-prone outlet glaciers around the Antarctic coast. Our results suggest that TG and PIG have the fastest response time of all investigated outlets, with TG responding about 1.25 to 2 times as fast as PIG, while other outlets around Antarctica would be up to 10 times slower if destabilized. These results have to be viewed in light of the strong assumptions made in their derivation. These include the absence of ice-shelf buttressing, the one-dimensionality of the approach and the uncertainty of the available data. We argue however that the current topographic situation and the physical conditions of the MISI-prone outlet glaciers carry the information of their respective timescale and that this information can be partially extracted through a similitude analysis. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Levermann, A. Feldmann, J. |
author_facet |
Levermann, A. Feldmann, J. |
author_sort |
Levermann, A. |
title |
Scaling of instability timescales of Antarctic outlet glaciers based on one-dimensional similitude analysis |
title_short |
Scaling of instability timescales of Antarctic outlet glaciers based on one-dimensional similitude analysis |
title_full |
Scaling of instability timescales of Antarctic outlet glaciers based on one-dimensional similitude analysis |
title_fullStr |
Scaling of instability timescales of Antarctic outlet glaciers based on one-dimensional similitude analysis |
title_full_unstemmed |
Scaling of instability timescales of Antarctic outlet glaciers based on one-dimensional similitude analysis |
title_sort |
scaling of instability timescales of antarctic outlet glaciers based on one-dimensional similitude analysis |
publisher |
Göttingen : Copernicus GmbH |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.34657/3535 https://oa.tib.eu/renate/handle/123456789/4906 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-101.000,-101.000,-75.000,-75.000) ENVELOPE(-106.750,-106.750,-75.500,-75.500) ENVELOPE(26.683,26.683,66.617,66.617) |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic West Antarctica Pine Island Glacier Thwaites Glacier Misi |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic West Antarctica Pine Island Glacier Thwaites Glacier Misi |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Pine Island Pine Island Glacier Thwaites Glacier West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Pine Island Pine Island Glacier Thwaites Glacier West Antarctica |
op_rights |
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International CC BY 4.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.34657/3535 |
_version_ |
1766213813738143744 |