Sixty years of ice form and flow at Camp Century, Greenland

The magnitude and azimuth of horizontal ice flow at Camp Century, Greenland have been measured several times since 1963. Here, we provide a further two independent measurements over the 2017–21 period. Our consensus estimate of horizontal ice flow from four independent satellite-positioning solution...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Glaciology
Main Authors: William Colgan, Jakob Jakobsen, Anne Solgaard, Anja Løkkegaard, Jakob Abermann, Shfaqat A. Khan, Beata Csatho, Joseph A. MacGregor, Robert S. Fausto, Nanna Karlsson, Allan Ø. Pedersen, Signe B. Andersen, John Sonntag, Christine S. Hvidberg, Andreas P. Ahlstrøm
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press 2023
Subjects:
Ice dynamics
ice velocity
laser altimetry
Environmental sciences
GE1-350
Meteorology. Climatology
QC851-999
Greenland
Journal of Glaciology
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2022.112
https://doaj.org/article/fba10fb392ab4f8d85998966e3e74ca9
Description
Summary:The magnitude and azimuth of horizontal ice flow at Camp Century, Greenland have been measured several times since 1963. Here, we provide a further two independent measurements over the 2017–21 period. Our consensus estimate of horizontal ice flow from four independent satellite-positioning solutions is 3.65 ± 0.13 m a−1 at an azimuth of 236 ± 2°. A portion of the small, but significant, differences in ice velocity and azimuth reported between studies likely results from spatial gradients in ice flow. This highlights the importance of restricting inter-study comparisons of ice flow estimates to measurements surveyed within a horizontal distance of one ice thickness from each other. We suggest that ice flow at Camp Century is stable on seasonal to multi-decadal timescales. The airborne and satellite laser altimetry record indicates an ice thickening trend of 1.1 ± 0.3 cm a−1 since 1994. This thickening trend is qualitatively consistent with previously inferred ongoing millennial-scale ice thickening at Camp Century. The ice flow divide immediately north of Camp Century may now be migrating southward, although the reasons for this divide migration are poorly understood. The Camp Century flowlines presently terminate in the vicinity of Innaqqissorsuup Oqquani Sermeq (Gade Gletsjer) on the Melville Bay coast.

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