Measuring Height Change Around the Periphery of the Greenland Ice Sheet With Radar Altimetry
Ice loss measurements around the periphery of the Greenland Ice Sheet can provide key information on the response to climate change. Here we use the excellent spatial and temporal coverage provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) CryoSat satellite, together with NASA airborne Operation IceBridge...
Published in: | Frontiers in Earth Science |
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00146 https://doaj.org/article/f0e5d80c96204207b68740b33a649209 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:f0e5d80c96204207b68740b33a649209 2023-05-15T16:21:26+02:00 Measuring Height Change Around the Periphery of the Greenland Ice Sheet With Radar Altimetry Laurence Gray David Burgess Luke Copland Kirsty Langley Prasad Gogineni John Paden Carl Leuschen Dirk van As Robert Fausto Ian Joughin Ben Smith 2019-06-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00146 https://doaj.org/article/f0e5d80c96204207b68740b33a649209 EN eng Frontiers Media S.A. https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/feart.2019.00146/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-6463 2296-6463 doi:10.3389/feart.2019.00146 https://doaj.org/article/f0e5d80c96204207b68740b33a649209 Frontiers in Earth Science, Vol 7 (2019) Greenland Ice Sheet CryoSat ice loss radar altimetry lidar altimetry radar penetration Science Q article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00146 2022-12-30T23:05:04Z Ice loss measurements around the periphery of the Greenland Ice Sheet can provide key information on the response to climate change. Here we use the excellent spatial and temporal coverage provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) CryoSat satellite, together with NASA airborne Operation IceBridge and automatic weather station data, to study the influence of changing conditions on the bias between the height estimated by the satellite radar altimeter and the ice sheet surface. Surface and near-surface conditions on the ice sheet periphery change with season and geographic position in a way that affects the returned altimeter waveform and can therefore affect the estimate of the surface height derived from the waveform. Notwithstanding the possibility of a varying bias between the derived and real surface, for the lower accumulation regions in the western and northern ice sheet periphery (<∼1 m snow accumulation yearly) we show that the CryoSat altimeter can measure height change throughout the year, including that associated with ice dynamics, summer melt and winter accumulation. Further, over the 9-year CryoSat lifetime it is also possible to relate height change to change in speed of large outlet glaciers, for example, there is significant height loss upstream of two branches of the Upernavik glacier in NW Greenland that increased in speed during this time, but much less height loss over a third branch that slowed in the same time period. In contrast to the west and north, winter snow accumulation in the south-east periphery can be 2–3 m and the average altimeter height for this area can decrease by up to 2 m during the fall and winter when the change in the surface elevation is much smaller. We show that vertical downward movement of the dense layer from the last summer melt, coupled with overlying dry snow, is responsible for the anomalous altimeter height change. However, it is still possible to estimate year-to-year height change measurements in this area by using data from the late-summer to early ... Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Upernavik Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Greenland Frontiers in Earth Science 7 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Greenland Ice Sheet CryoSat ice loss radar altimetry lidar altimetry radar penetration Science Q |
spellingShingle |
Greenland Ice Sheet CryoSat ice loss radar altimetry lidar altimetry radar penetration Science Q Laurence Gray David Burgess Luke Copland Kirsty Langley Prasad Gogineni John Paden Carl Leuschen Dirk van As Robert Fausto Ian Joughin Ben Smith Measuring Height Change Around the Periphery of the Greenland Ice Sheet With Radar Altimetry |
topic_facet |
Greenland Ice Sheet CryoSat ice loss radar altimetry lidar altimetry radar penetration Science Q |
description |
Ice loss measurements around the periphery of the Greenland Ice Sheet can provide key information on the response to climate change. Here we use the excellent spatial and temporal coverage provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) CryoSat satellite, together with NASA airborne Operation IceBridge and automatic weather station data, to study the influence of changing conditions on the bias between the height estimated by the satellite radar altimeter and the ice sheet surface. Surface and near-surface conditions on the ice sheet periphery change with season and geographic position in a way that affects the returned altimeter waveform and can therefore affect the estimate of the surface height derived from the waveform. Notwithstanding the possibility of a varying bias between the derived and real surface, for the lower accumulation regions in the western and northern ice sheet periphery (<∼1 m snow accumulation yearly) we show that the CryoSat altimeter can measure height change throughout the year, including that associated with ice dynamics, summer melt and winter accumulation. Further, over the 9-year CryoSat lifetime it is also possible to relate height change to change in speed of large outlet glaciers, for example, there is significant height loss upstream of two branches of the Upernavik glacier in NW Greenland that increased in speed during this time, but much less height loss over a third branch that slowed in the same time period. In contrast to the west and north, winter snow accumulation in the south-east periphery can be 2–3 m and the average altimeter height for this area can decrease by up to 2 m during the fall and winter when the change in the surface elevation is much smaller. We show that vertical downward movement of the dense layer from the last summer melt, coupled with overlying dry snow, is responsible for the anomalous altimeter height change. However, it is still possible to estimate year-to-year height change measurements in this area by using data from the late-summer to early ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Laurence Gray David Burgess Luke Copland Kirsty Langley Prasad Gogineni John Paden Carl Leuschen Dirk van As Robert Fausto Ian Joughin Ben Smith |
author_facet |
Laurence Gray David Burgess Luke Copland Kirsty Langley Prasad Gogineni John Paden Carl Leuschen Dirk van As Robert Fausto Ian Joughin Ben Smith |
author_sort |
Laurence Gray |
title |
Measuring Height Change Around the Periphery of the Greenland Ice Sheet With Radar Altimetry |
title_short |
Measuring Height Change Around the Periphery of the Greenland Ice Sheet With Radar Altimetry |
title_full |
Measuring Height Change Around the Periphery of the Greenland Ice Sheet With Radar Altimetry |
title_fullStr |
Measuring Height Change Around the Periphery of the Greenland Ice Sheet With Radar Altimetry |
title_full_unstemmed |
Measuring Height Change Around the Periphery of the Greenland Ice Sheet With Radar Altimetry |
title_sort |
measuring height change around the periphery of the greenland ice sheet with radar altimetry |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00146 https://doaj.org/article/f0e5d80c96204207b68740b33a649209 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Upernavik |
genre_facet |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Upernavik |
op_source |
Frontiers in Earth Science, Vol 7 (2019) |
op_relation |
https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/feart.2019.00146/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-6463 2296-6463 doi:10.3389/feart.2019.00146 https://doaj.org/article/f0e5d80c96204207b68740b33a649209 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00146 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Earth Science |
container_volume |
7 |
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1766009437563125760 |