Seasonal dynamics of Totten Ice Shelf controlled by sea ice buttressing
Previous studies of Totten Ice Shelf have employed surface velocity measurements to estimate its mass balance and understand its sensitivities to interannual changes in climate forcing. However, displacement measurements acquired over timescales of days to weeks may not accurately characterize long-...
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Language: | English |
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Copernicus GmbH
2018
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Online Access: | https://eprints.utas.edu.au/28242/ https://eprints.utas.edu.au/28242/1/tc%20greene%202018.pdf |
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ftunivtasmania:oai:eprints.utas.edu.au:28242 2023-05-15T13:31:53+02:00 Seasonal dynamics of Totten Ice Shelf controlled by sea ice buttressing Greene, CA Young, DA Gwyther, DE Galton-Fenzi, BK Blankenship, DD 2018 application/pdf https://eprints.utas.edu.au/28242/ https://eprints.utas.edu.au/28242/1/tc%20greene%202018.pdf en eng Copernicus GmbH https://eprints.utas.edu.au/28242/1/tc%20greene%202018.pdf Greene, CA, Young, DA, Gwyther, DE orcid:0000-0002-7218-2785 , Galton-Fenzi, BK and Blankenship, DD 2018 , 'Seasonal dynamics of Totten Ice Shelf controlled by sea ice buttressing' , Cryosphere, vol. 12, no. 9 , pp. 2869-2882 , doi:10.5194/tc-12-2869-2018 <http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2869-2018>. Antarctica Totten Glacier ice sheet sea ice Article PeerReviewed 2018 ftunivtasmania https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2869-2018 2021-09-13T22:18:44Z Previous studies of Totten Ice Shelf have employed surface velocity measurements to estimate its mass balance and understand its sensitivities to interannual changes in climate forcing. However, displacement measurements acquired over timescales of days to weeks may not accurately characterize long-term flow rates wherein ice velocity fluctuates with the seasons. Quantifying annual mass budgets or analyzing interannual changes in ice velocity requires knowing when and where observations of glacier velocity could be aliased by subannual variability. Here, we analyze 16 years of velocity data for Totten Ice Shelf, which we generate at subannual resolution by applying feature-tracking algorithms to several hundred satellite image pairs. We identify a seasonal cycle characterized by a spring to autumn speedup of more than 100myr−1 close to the ice front. The amplitude of the seasonal cycle diminishes with distance from the open ocean, suggesting the presence of a resistive back stress at the ice front that is strongest in winter. Springtime acceleration precedes summer surface melt and is not attributable to thinning from basal melt. We attribute the onset of ice shelf acceleration each spring to the loss of buttressing from the breakup of seasonal landfast sea ice. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Sea ice Totten Glacier Totten Ice Shelf University of Tasmania: UTas ePrints Totten Glacier ENVELOPE(116.333,116.333,-66.833,-66.833) The Cryosphere 12 9 2869 2882 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Tasmania: UTas ePrints |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtasmania |
language |
English |
topic |
Antarctica Totten Glacier ice sheet sea ice |
spellingShingle |
Antarctica Totten Glacier ice sheet sea ice Greene, CA Young, DA Gwyther, DE Galton-Fenzi, BK Blankenship, DD Seasonal dynamics of Totten Ice Shelf controlled by sea ice buttressing |
topic_facet |
Antarctica Totten Glacier ice sheet sea ice |
description |
Previous studies of Totten Ice Shelf have employed surface velocity measurements to estimate its mass balance and understand its sensitivities to interannual changes in climate forcing. However, displacement measurements acquired over timescales of days to weeks may not accurately characterize long-term flow rates wherein ice velocity fluctuates with the seasons. Quantifying annual mass budgets or analyzing interannual changes in ice velocity requires knowing when and where observations of glacier velocity could be aliased by subannual variability. Here, we analyze 16 years of velocity data for Totten Ice Shelf, which we generate at subannual resolution by applying feature-tracking algorithms to several hundred satellite image pairs. We identify a seasonal cycle characterized by a spring to autumn speedup of more than 100myr−1 close to the ice front. The amplitude of the seasonal cycle diminishes with distance from the open ocean, suggesting the presence of a resistive back stress at the ice front that is strongest in winter. Springtime acceleration precedes summer surface melt and is not attributable to thinning from basal melt. We attribute the onset of ice shelf acceleration each spring to the loss of buttressing from the breakup of seasonal landfast sea ice. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Greene, CA Young, DA Gwyther, DE Galton-Fenzi, BK Blankenship, DD |
author_facet |
Greene, CA Young, DA Gwyther, DE Galton-Fenzi, BK Blankenship, DD |
author_sort |
Greene, CA |
title |
Seasonal dynamics of Totten Ice Shelf controlled by sea ice buttressing |
title_short |
Seasonal dynamics of Totten Ice Shelf controlled by sea ice buttressing |
title_full |
Seasonal dynamics of Totten Ice Shelf controlled by sea ice buttressing |
title_fullStr |
Seasonal dynamics of Totten Ice Shelf controlled by sea ice buttressing |
title_full_unstemmed |
Seasonal dynamics of Totten Ice Shelf controlled by sea ice buttressing |
title_sort |
seasonal dynamics of totten ice shelf controlled by sea ice buttressing |
publisher |
Copernicus GmbH |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://eprints.utas.edu.au/28242/ https://eprints.utas.edu.au/28242/1/tc%20greene%202018.pdf |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(116.333,116.333,-66.833,-66.833) |
geographic |
Totten Glacier |
geographic_facet |
Totten Glacier |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Sea ice Totten Glacier Totten Ice Shelf |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Sea ice Totten Glacier Totten Ice Shelf |
op_relation |
https://eprints.utas.edu.au/28242/1/tc%20greene%202018.pdf Greene, CA, Young, DA, Gwyther, DE orcid:0000-0002-7218-2785 , Galton-Fenzi, BK and Blankenship, DD 2018 , 'Seasonal dynamics of Totten Ice Shelf controlled by sea ice buttressing' , Cryosphere, vol. 12, no. 9 , pp. 2869-2882 , doi:10.5194/tc-12-2869-2018 <http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2869-2018>. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2869-2018 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
2869 |
op_container_end_page |
2882 |
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1766021868200919040 |