The ice-free topography of Svalbard

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Fürst, Johannes, Navarro, Francisco, Gillet-Chaulet, Fabien, Huss, Matthias, Moholdt, Geir, Fettweis, Xavier, Lang, Charlotte, Seehaus, Thorsten, Ai, Sangtao, Benham, Toby, Benn, Doug, Björnsson, Helgi, Dowdeswell, Julian, Grabiec, Mariusz, Kohler, Jack, Lavrentiev, Ivan, Lindbäck, Katrin, Melvold, Kjetil, Pettersson, Rickard, Rippin, David Manish, Saintenoy, Albane, Sánchez-Gámez, Pablo, Schuler, Thomas, Sevestre, Heidi, Vasilenko, Evgeny, Braun, Matthias
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Svalbard; glacier
• Online Access: https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/138277/; https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/138277/1/F_rst_et_al_2018_Geophysical_Research_Letters.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL079734

We present a first version of the Svalbard ice-free topography (SVIFT1.0) using a mass-conserving approach for mapping glacier ice thickness. SVIFT1.0 is informed by more than 900’000 point-measurements of glacier thickness, totalling almost 8’300 km of thickness profiles. It is publicly available for download. Our estimate for the total ice volume is 6’253km3, equivalent to 1.6cm sea-level rise. The thickness map suggests that 13% of the glacierised area is grounded below sea-level. Thickness values are provided together with a map of error estimates that comprise uncertainties in the thickness surveys as well as in other input variables. Aggregated error estimates are used to define a likely ice-volume range of 5’200-7’400km3. The ice-front thickness of marine-terminating glaciers is a key quantity for ice-loss attribution because it controls the potential ice discharge by iceberg calving into the ocean. We find a mean ice-front thickness of 133m for the archipelago.