Subglacial hydrology modeling predicts high winter water pressure and spatially variable transmissivity at Helheim Glacier, Greenland

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Authors: Aleah Sommers, Colin Meyer, Mathieu Morlighem, Harihar Rajaram, Kristin Poinar, Winnie Chu, Jessica Mejia
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press
• Subjects: Glacier hydrology; Glacier modeling; ice-sheet modeling; basal melt; subglacial processes; Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Meteorology. Climatology; QC851-999; Greenland; East Greenland; glacier; Ice Sheet; Journal of Glaciology
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2023.39; https://doaj.org/article/34e2fff669c340e78d4aa9af0cef9668

Water pressure beneath glaciers influences ice velocity. Subglacial hydrology models are helpful for gaining insight into basal conditions, but models depend on unconstrained parameters, and a current challenge is reproducing elevated water pressures in winter. We eliminate terms related to englacial storage, opening by sliding, and melt due to changes in the pressure-melting-point temperature, to create a minimalist version of the Subglacial Hydrology And Kinetic, Transient Interactions (SHAKTI) model, and apply this model to Helheim Glacier in east Greenland to explore the winter base state of the subglacial drainage system. Our results suggest that meltwater produced at the bed alone supports active winter drainage with large areas of elevated water pressure and preferential drainage pathways, using a continuum approach that allows for transitions between flow regimes. Transmissivity varies spatially over several orders of magnitude from 10−4 to 103 m2s−1, with regions of weak transmissivity representing poorly connected regions of the system. Bed topography controls the location of primary drainage pathways, and high basal melt rates occur along the steep valley walls. Frictional heat from sliding is a dominant source of basal melt; different approaches for calculating basal shear stress produce significantly different basal melt rates and subglacial discharge.