Sponsor
Imagery for this work was provided through the Antarctic Glaciological Data Center at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center. This work was supported by the US National Science Foundation (grants OPP-0538120 to Catania, OPP- 9909518 to Raymond and OPP-0296099 to Hulbe).
Published In
Journal of Glaciology
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2012
Subjects
Ice sheets -- Antarctica, Glaciers -- Antarctica, Ice -- Dynamics, Glacial landforms -- Antarctica, Ice sheets -- Mathematical models, Mass budget (Geophysics)
Abstract
We synthesize previously published remote-sensing observations, radar data and model output to obtain a ~1000 year ice flow history for the Siple Coast ice-stream system in West Antarctica to investigate the timing and magnitude of changes in mass flux. The synthesized history shows significant short-term variability in ice-stream shear margin and grounding line position due to internal variability of the coupled system. The chronology highlights the interplay between adjacent ice streams, which implies that the behavior of any individual ice stream should not be examined in isolation. Furthermore, individual events cannot be fully interpreted without an understanding of the broad-scale, long-term variability in the ice sheet. In the context of this millennium-scale history, we interpret the relatively recent stagnation of Kamb Ice Stream (KIS) as just one stage in the thermodynamic cycle of an ice stream in this region. The changes in mass balance that result from the KIS stagnation may thus be viewed as century-scale ?noise? relative to the longer-term trend. Understanding and characterizing this noise is a necessary step before accurate model-based predictions of ice-sheet mass balance for the next century can be made.
DOI
10.3189/2012JoG11J219
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/8424
Citation Details
Catania. G. A., C.L. Hulbe, H.B. Conway, T.A. Scambos, C.F. Raymond, 2012, Variability in the mass flux of the Ross Sea ice streams, Antarctica, over the last millennium. Journal of Glaciology, 58 (210), 741-752.
Description
Originally published in the Journal of Glaciology, published by the International Glaciological Society. Article can be found at http://www.igsoc.org/journal/