Spatial and Temporal Variability of Antarctic Accumulation Rates
The mass balance of an ice sheet is the difference between mass input from snowfall and mass output from ice flow, blowing snow near the coast, and sublimation. Current estimates for the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet have large errors, making it difficult to quantify its contribution to se...
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ftmaineuniv:oai:digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu:etd-2624 2023-06-11T04:05:43+02:00 Spatial and Temporal Variability of Antarctic Accumulation Rates Palmer, Monica 2011-01-01T08:00:00Z application/pdf https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/1595 https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/context/etd/article/2624/viewcontent/PalmerM2011.pdf unknown DigitalCommons@UMaine https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/1595 https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/context/etd/article/2624/viewcontent/PalmerM2011.pdf Electronic Theses and Dissertations Mass budget (Geophysics) Snowfall measurement Earth Sciences Glaciology Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology text 2011 ftmaineuniv 2023-05-04T18:01:38Z The mass balance of an ice sheet is the difference between mass input from snowfall and mass output from ice flow, blowing snow near the coast, and sublimation. Current estimates for the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet have large errors, making it difficult to quantify its contribution to sea-level rise. Most of the error in current estimates arises from a lack of detailed accumulation rate data which is difficult to measure remotely. Accumulation rates vary across small distances, complicating extrapolation of point data, such as ice cores, to regional averages. The size of the ice sheet further complicates collection of widespread ground measurements. Here, we describe a new method for extracting high-resolution accumulation rates from radar profiles, and conduct an analysis of the data. Our method is based on extensive datasets collected during recent overland traverses of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. These datasets consist of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) profiles, firn/ice cores, and global-positioning system (GPS) data. All three sets of observations are combined to extract high-resolution accumulation rates along traverse routes. This method is effect at capturing small-scale spatial variability in snow distribution over different time periods which provides an opportunity to investigate both spatial and temporal variability in snowfall. The high spatial resolution and long temporal coverage of the data also enable investigation into the effects of topography, climate, and ice advection on accumulation rate distribution. A comparison between our accumulation rate dataset and three widely-used compilations reveals that the large-scale continental compilations perform well over large distances (> 100 km) but do not capture the small scale variability (<10 km) that may account for much of the error in current mass input estimates. We argue that our high-resolution accumulation rate estimates have the potential to greatly improve mass balance estimates compared to the continental scale ... Text Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet The University of Maine: DigitalCommons@UMaine Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet The Antarctic |
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The University of Maine: DigitalCommons@UMaine |
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topic |
Mass budget (Geophysics) Snowfall measurement Earth Sciences Glaciology Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology |
spellingShingle |
Mass budget (Geophysics) Snowfall measurement Earth Sciences Glaciology Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Palmer, Monica Spatial and Temporal Variability of Antarctic Accumulation Rates |
topic_facet |
Mass budget (Geophysics) Snowfall measurement Earth Sciences Glaciology Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology |
description |
The mass balance of an ice sheet is the difference between mass input from snowfall and mass output from ice flow, blowing snow near the coast, and sublimation. Current estimates for the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet have large errors, making it difficult to quantify its contribution to sea-level rise. Most of the error in current estimates arises from a lack of detailed accumulation rate data which is difficult to measure remotely. Accumulation rates vary across small distances, complicating extrapolation of point data, such as ice cores, to regional averages. The size of the ice sheet further complicates collection of widespread ground measurements. Here, we describe a new method for extracting high-resolution accumulation rates from radar profiles, and conduct an analysis of the data. Our method is based on extensive datasets collected during recent overland traverses of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. These datasets consist of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) profiles, firn/ice cores, and global-positioning system (GPS) data. All three sets of observations are combined to extract high-resolution accumulation rates along traverse routes. This method is effect at capturing small-scale spatial variability in snow distribution over different time periods which provides an opportunity to investigate both spatial and temporal variability in snowfall. The high spatial resolution and long temporal coverage of the data also enable investigation into the effects of topography, climate, and ice advection on accumulation rate distribution. A comparison between our accumulation rate dataset and three widely-used compilations reveals that the large-scale continental compilations perform well over large distances (> 100 km) but do not capture the small scale variability (<10 km) that may account for much of the error in current mass input estimates. We argue that our high-resolution accumulation rate estimates have the potential to greatly improve mass balance estimates compared to the continental scale ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Palmer, Monica |
author_facet |
Palmer, Monica |
author_sort |
Palmer, Monica |
title |
Spatial and Temporal Variability of Antarctic Accumulation Rates |
title_short |
Spatial and Temporal Variability of Antarctic Accumulation Rates |
title_full |
Spatial and Temporal Variability of Antarctic Accumulation Rates |
title_fullStr |
Spatial and Temporal Variability of Antarctic Accumulation Rates |
title_full_unstemmed |
Spatial and Temporal Variability of Antarctic Accumulation Rates |
title_sort |
spatial and temporal variability of antarctic accumulation rates |
publisher |
DigitalCommons@UMaine |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/1595 https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/context/etd/article/2624/viewcontent/PalmerM2011.pdf |
geographic |
Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
op_relation |
https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/1595 https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/context/etd/article/2624/viewcontent/PalmerM2011.pdf |
_version_ |
1768377325010812928 |