Observations of Inertial Currents in a Lagoon in Southeastern Iceland using Terrestrial Radar Interferometry and Automated Iceberg Tracking

Warming ocean currents are considered to be a contributing factor to the retreat of marine-terminating glaciers worldwide, but direct observations near the ice–ocean interface are challenging. We use radar intensity imagery and an iceberg tracking algorithm to produce half-hourly current maps within...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Computers & Geosciences
Main Authors: Voytenko, Denis, Dixon, Timothy H., Luther, Mark E., Lembke, Chad, Howat, Ian M., de la Pena, Santiago
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Digital Commons @ University of South Florida 2015
Subjects:
Terrestrial radar interferometry
Iceberg tracking
Inertial currents
Earth Sciences
Jökulsárlón
glacier
Iceland
Online Access:https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/geo_facpub/1535
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2015.05.012
Description
Summary:Warming ocean currents are considered to be a contributing factor to the retreat of marine-terminating glaciers worldwide, but direct observations near the ice–ocean interface are challenging. We use radar intensity imagery and an iceberg tracking algorithm to produce half-hourly current maps within an imaged portion of Jökulsárlón, a proglacial lagoon in southeastern Iceland. Over our 43.5-h observation period, the lagoon has clockwise circulation with current speeds of order 3–8 cm/s and occasional strong glacier outflows of up to ∼15 cm/s. The currents driven by the glacial outflows appear to be dominantly inertial.

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