The ice-free topography of Svalbard

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Fürst, Johannes J., Navarro, Francisco, Gillet-Chaulet, Fabien, Huss, Matthias, Moholdt, Geir, Fettweis, Xavier, Lang, Charlotte, Seehaus, Thorsten, Ai, Songtao, Benham, Toby J., Benn, Doug, Björnsson, Helgi, Dowdeswell, Julian A, Grabiec, Mariusz, Kohler, Jack, Lavrentiev, Ivan, Lindbäck, Katrin, Melvold, Kjetil, Pettersson, Rickard, Rippin, David, Saintenoy, Albane, Sánchez-Gámez, Pablo, Schuler, Thomas, Sevestre, Heidi, Vasilenko, Evgeny, Braun, Matthias H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Geophysical Union 2018
• Subjects: Svalbard; glacier
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10852/71056; http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-74191; 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 1 million point measurements, totalling more than 8,700 km of thickness profiles. SVIFT1.0 is publicly available and represents the geometric state around the year 2010. Our estimate for the total ice volume is 6,199 km3, equivalent to 1.5‐cm sea level rise. The thickness map suggests that 13% of the glacierized area is grounded below sea level. A complementary map of error estimates comprises 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 5,200–7,300 km3. 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 135 m for the archipelago (likely range 123–158 m). ©2018. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.