Three-dimensional visualisation of internal layering in Antarctic ice

• Main Authors: Bingham, RG, Siegert, MJ
• Format: Other Non-Article Part of Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1983/f7bb49d6-5cf8-45ed-878a-c587724c9f93; https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/f7bb49d6-5cf8-45ed-878a-c587724c9f93

Over the past 30 years radio-echo sounding (RES) techniques have been used extensively in Antarctica to identify the ice thickness, subglacial conditions and internal layers, which commonly act as stratigraphic markers, or isochrons, within ice sheets. Internal layering thus has significant potential to impart crucial information on the spatial and temporal response of the both the East and West Antarctic ice sheets to climate change. However, to date the analysis and representation of RES data has largely been restricted to two-dimensional applications, such as correlating between two ice-coring sites, and the full potential of RES data for exploring the three-dimensional response of the ice sheet to climate change has yet to be realised. As a first step in addressing this issue, we are developing a fully three-dimensional visualisation of the architecture of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, to provide a powerful new base against which to test numerical reconstructions and predictions. We report here on the three-dimensional structure of Antarctica as reconstructed from RES data collected by SPRI between 1974 and 1978. Over the past 30 years radio-echo sounding (RES) techniques have been used extensively in Antarctica to identify the ice thickness, subglacial conditions and internal layers, which commonly act as stratigraphic markers, or isochrons, within ice sheets. Internal layering thus has significant potential to impart crucial information on the spatial and temporal response of the both the East and West Antarctic ice sheets to climate change. However, to date the analysis and representation of RES data has largely been restricted to two-dimensional applications, such as correlating between two ice-coring sites, and the full potential of RES data for exploring the three-dimensional response of the ice sheet to climate change has yet to be realised. As a first step in addressing this issue, we are developing a fully three-dimensional visualisation of the architecture of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, to provide a powerful new base against which to test numerical reconstructions and predictions. We report here on the three-dimensional structure of Antarctica as reconstructed from RES data collected by SPRI between 1974 and 1978.