Differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar for tide modelling in Antarctic ice-shelf grounding zones

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: C. T. Wild, O. J. Marsh, W. Rack
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2019
• Subjects: Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Geology; QE1-996.5; Antarctic; Darwin Glacier; McMurdo Ice Shelf; Ross Sea; The Antarctic; Transantarctic Mountains; Antarc*; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelf; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-3171-2019; https://doaj.org/article/ed927ed9f48348468dc73671260166dc

Differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar (DInSAR) is an essential tool for detecting ice-sheet motion near Antarctica's oceanic margin. These space-borne measurements have been used extensively in the past to map the location and retreat of ice-shelf grounding lines as an indicator for the onset of marine ice-sheet instability and to calculate the mass balance of ice sheets and individual catchments. The main difficulty in interpreting DInSAR is that images originate from a combination of several SAR images and do not indicate instantaneous ice deflection at the times of satellite data acquisitions. Here, we combine the sub-centimetre accuracy and spatial benefits of DInSAR with the temporal benefits of tide models to infer the spatio-temporal dynamics of ice–ocean interaction during the times of satellite overpasses. We demonstrate the potential of this synergy with TerraSAR-X data from the almost-stagnant southern McMurdo Ice Shelf (SMIS). We then validate our algorithm with GPS data from the fast-flowing Darwin Glacier, draining the Antarctic Plateau through the Transantarctic Mountains into the Ross Sea. We are able to reconstruct DInSAR-derived vertical displacements to 7 mm mean absolute residual error and generally improve traditional tide-model output by up to 39 % from 10.8 to 6.7 cm RMSE against GPS data from areas where ice is in local hydrostatic equilibrium with the ocean and by up to 74 % from 21.4 to 5.6 cm RMSE against GPS data in feature-rich coastal areas where tide models have not been applicable before. Numerical modelling then reveals Young's modulus of <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><mi>E</mi><mo>=</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">1.0</mn><mo>±</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">0.56</mn></mrow></math> <svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="71pt" height="10pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" ...