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Here, we present observations of temporal variability of sub-ice platelet layer over seasonal and diurnal timescales under Ice Shelf Water-influenced fast ice in McMurdo Sound. Electromagnetic induction (EM) sounding time-series measurements of the thicknesses of fast ice and sub-ice platelet layer were made in winter and late spring of 2018. Winter objectives were to measure the seasonal growth of fast ice and sub-ice platelet layer near the McMurdo Ice Shelf in the east, while in late spring we assessed the diurnal variability of sub-ice platelet layer with coincident EM time-series and oceanographic measurements collected in the main outflow path of supercooled Ice Shelf Water in the west. During winter, we observed when the sub-ice platelet layer formed beneath consolidated ice. Episodes of rapid sub-ice platelet layer growth (∼ 0.5–1 m) coincided with strong southerly wind events and polynya activity, suggesting wind-enhanced Ice Shelf Water circulation from the McMurdo–Ross Ice Shelf cavity. In late spring, we investigated how the tides and ocean properties influenced the sub-ice platelet layer. Over a 2-week neap–spring tidal cycle, changes in sub-ice platelet layer thickness were observed to correlate with the tides, increasing more during neap than spring tide cycles, and on diurnal timescales, more on ebb than flood tides. Neap and ebb tides correspond with stronger northward circulation out of the cavity, indicating that sub-ice platelet layer growth was driven by tidally enhanced Ice Shelf Water outflow. The observed variability indicated that wind-driven circulation and the tides influence Ice Shelf Water outflow in McMurdo Sound and, consequently, sub-ice platelet layer evolution over a range of timescales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internal wave-driven mixing is an important factor in the balance of heat and salt fluxes in the polar regions of the ocean. Transformation of internal waves at the edge of the ice cover can enhance the mixing and melting of ice in the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica. In the polar oceans, internal solitary waves (ISWs) are generated by various sources, including tidal currents over bottom topography, the interaction of ice keels with tides, time-varying winds, vortices, and lee waves. In this study, a numerical investigation of the transformation of ISWs propagating from open water in the stratified sea under the edge of the ice cover is carried out to compare the depression ISW transformation and loss of energy on smooth ice surfaces, including those on the ice shelf and glacier outlets, with the processes beneath the ridged underside of the ice. They were carried out using a non-hydrostatic model that is based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations in the Boussinesq approximation for a continuously stratified fluid. The Smagorinsky turbulence model extended for stratified fluid was used to describe the small-scale turbulent mixing explicitly. Two series of numerical experiments were carried out in an idealized 2D setup. The first series aimed to study the processes of the ISWs of depression transformation under an ice cover of constant submerged ice thickness. Energy loss was estimated based on a budget of depth-integrated pseudoenergy before and after the wave transformation. The transformation of ISWs of depressions is controlled by the blocking parameter β , which is the ratio of the minimum thickness of the upper layer under the ice cover to the incident wave amplitude. The energy loss was relatively small for large positive and large negative values of β. The maximal value of energy loss was about 38 %, and it was reached at β≈0 for ISWs. In the second series of experiments, a number of keels were located on the underside of the constant-thickness ice layer. The ISW transformation under ridged ice also depends on the blocking parameter β. For large keels (β<0), more than 40 % of energy is lost on the first keel, while for relatively small keels (β>0.3), the losses on the first keel are less than 6 %. Energy losses due to all keels depend on the distance between them, which is characterized by the parameter μ , i.e. the ratio of keel depth to the distance between keels. In turn, for a finite length of the ice layer, the distance between keels depends on the keel quantity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glacial fjords often contain ice mélange, a frozen conglomeration of icebergs, brash ice, and sea ice, that have been postulated to influence both glacier dynamics and fjord circulation through coupled mechanical and thermodynamic processes. Ice mélange meltwater can alter stratification of the water column by releasing cool, fresh water across a range of depths in the upper layer of the fjord. This meltwater input can subsequently modify the depth at which the subglacial discharge plume reaches neutral buoyancy and therefore the underlying buoyancy-driven fjord circulation and heat exchange with warm ocean shelf waters. Despite a spate of recent modelling studies exploring these proposed feedbacks, we lack in situ observations quantifying changes to the water column induced by ice mélange meltwater. Here we use a novel dataset collected before and after the melt, breakup, and down-fjord transport of an ephemeral ice mélange in front of Kangilliup Sermia (Rink Isbræ) to directly investigate the extent to which ice mélange meltwater can modify glacier-adjacent water properties. We find that even a short-lived ice mélange (4 days) can cause substantial cooling (0.18 °C) and freshening (0.25 g kg-1) of the water column that leads to stratification change down to the depth of the outflowing discharge plume. We compare our observations to an adjacent fjord, Kangerlussuup Sermia, where ice mélange seldom forms in the summertime, and show that the presence or absence of ice mélange melt creates fundamental differences in their upper layer hydrography. These observations provide critical constraints for recent modelling studies that have suggested ice mélange meltwater needs to be included in ocean circulation models for glaciers with deep grounding lines and high ice fluxes, which are precisely the glaciers exhibiting the largest magnitude terminus retreats at present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Field and remote sensing studies suggest that ice mélange influences glacier-fjord systems by exerting stresses on glacier termini and releasing large amounts of freshwater into fjords. The broader impacts of ice mélange over long time scales are unknown, in part due to a lack of suitable ice mélange flow models. Previous efforts have included modifying existing viscous ice shelf models, despite the fact that ice mélange is fundamentally a granular material, and running computationally expensive discrete element simulations. Here, we draw on laboratory studies of granular materials, which exhibit viscous flow when stresses greatly exceed the yield point, plug flow when the stresses approach the yield point, and stress transfer via force chains. By implementing the nonlocal granular fluidity rheology into a depth- and width-integrated stress balance equation, we produce a numerical model of ice mélange flow that is consistent with our understanding of well-packed granular materials and that is suitable for long time-scale simulations. For parallel-sided fjords, the model exhibits two possible steady state solutions. When there is no calving of new icebergs or melting of previously calved icebergs, the ice mélange is pushed down fjord by the advancing glacier terminus, the velocity is constant along the length of the fjord, and the thickness profile is exponential. When calving and melting are included, the ice mélange evolves to another steady state in which its location is fixed relative to the fjord walls, the thickness profile is relatively steep, and the flow is extensional. For the latter case, the model predicts that the steady-state ice mélange buttressing force depends on the surface and basal melt rates through an inverse power law relationship, decays roughly exponentially with both fjord width and gradient in fjord width, and increases with the iceberg calving flux. The increase in buttressing force with the calving flux, which depends on glacier thickness, appears to occur more rapidly than the force required to prevent the capsize of full-glacier-thickness icebergs, suggesting that glaciers with high calving fluxes may be more strongly influenced by ice mélange than those with small fluxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 79° North Glacier (Nioghalvfjerdsbrae, 79NG) is one of three remaining glaciers with a floating tongue in Greenland. Although the glacier has been considered exceptionally stable in the past, earlier studies have shown that the ice tongue has thinned in recent decades. By conducting high-resolution ground-based and airborne radar measurements in conjunction with satellite remote-sensing observations, we find significant changes in the geometry of 79NG. In the vicinity of the grounding line, a 500 m high subglacial channel has grown since ∼ 2010 and has caused surface lowering of up to 7.6 m a -1. Our results show extreme basal melt rates exceeding 150 m a -1 over a period of 17 d within a distance of 5 km from the grounding line, where the ice has thinned by 32 % since 1998. We find a heterogeneous distribution of melt rates, likely due to variability in water column thickness and channelization of the ice base. Time series of melt rates show a decrease in basal melting since 2018, indicating an inflow of colder water into the cavity below 79NG. We discuss the processes that have led to the changes in geometry and conclude that the inflow of warm ocean currents has led to the extensive thinning of 79NG's floating ice tongue near the grounding line over the last 2 decades. In contrast, we hypothesize that the growth of the channel results from increased subglacial discharge due to a considerably enlarged area of summer surface melt due to the warming of the atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ice shelf dynamics and morphology play an important role in the stability of floating bodies of ice by driving fracturing that can lead to calving, in turn impacting the ability of the ice shelf to buttress upstream grounded ice. Following a 2016 calving event at the Nansen Ice Shelf (NIS), East Antarctica, we collected airborne and ground-based radar data to map ice thickness across the shelf. We combine these data with published satellite-derived data to examine the spatial variations in ice shelf draft, the cause and effects of ice shelf strain rates, and the possibility that a suture zone may be channelizing ocean water and altering patterns of sub-ice-shelf melt and freeze-on. We also use our datasets to assess limitations that may arise from relying on hydrostatic-balance equations applied to ice surface elevation to determine ice draft morphology. We find that the Nansen Ice Shelf has a highly variable basal morphology driven primarily by the formation of basal fractures near the onset of the ice shelf suture zone. This morphology is reflected in the ice shelf strain rates but not in the calculated hydrostatic-balance thickness, which underestimates the scale of variability at the ice shelf base. Enhanced melt rates near the ice shelf terminus and in steep regions of the channelized suture zone, along with relatively thin ice in the suture zone, appear to represent vulnerable areas in the NIS. This morphology, combined with ice dynamics, induce strain that has led to the formation of transverse fractures within the suture zone, resulting in large-scale calving events. Similar transverse fractures at other Antarctic ice shelves may also be driven by highly variable morphology, and predicting their formation and evolution could aid projections of ice shelf stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, we present observations of temporal variability of sub-ice platelet layer over seasonal and diurnal timescales under Ice Shelf Water-influenced fast ice in McMurdo Sound. Electromagnetic induction (EM) sounding time-series measurements of the thicknesses of fast ice and sub-ice platelet layer were made in winter and late spring of 2018. Winter objectives were to measure the seasonal growth of fast ice and sub-ice platelet layer near the McMurdo Ice Shelf in the east, while in late spring we assessed the diurnal variability of sub-ice platelet layer with coincident EM time-series and oceanographic measurements collected in the main outflow path of supercooled Ice Shelf Water in the west. During winter, we observed when the sub-ice platelet layer formed beneath consolidated ice. Episodes of rapid sub-ice platelet layer growth (~0.5–1 m) coincided with strong southerly-wind-events and polynya activity, suggesting wind-enhanced Ice Shelf Water circulation from the McMurdo-Ross Ice Shelf cavity. In late spring, we investigated how the tides and ocean properties influenced the sub-ice platelet layer. Over a two-week neap-spring tidal cycle, changes in sub-ice platelet layer thickness were observed to correlate with the tides, increasing more during neap than spring tide cycles, and on diurnal timescales, more on ebb than flood tides. Neap and ebb tides correspond with stronger northward circulation out of the cavity, indicating that sub-ice platelet layer growth was driven by tidally-enhanced Ice Shelf Water outflow. The observed variability indicated that wind-driven circulation and the tides influence Ice Shelf Water outflow in McMurdo Sound, and consequently, sub-ice platelet layer evolution over a range of timescales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract. Grounding line discharge is a key component of the mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Here we present an estimate of Antarctic Ice Sheet grounding line discharge from 1996 through to last month. We calculate ice flux at up to 100 m resolution through 16 algorithmically-generated flux gates, which are continuous around Antarctica. We draw on a range of ice velocity and thickness data to estimate grounding line discharge. For ice thickness, we use four bed topography datasets, two firn models and a temporally varying ice surface. For the ice velocity, we utilise a range of publicly-available ice velocity maps at resolutions ranging from 240 x 240 m to 1000 x 1000 m, as well as new, 100 x 100 m monthly velocity mosaics derived from intensity-tracking of Sentinel-1 image pairs, available since October 2014. The pixel-based ice fluxes and ice flux errors are integrated within all available Antarctic ice stream, ice shelf and glacier basins. Our dataset also includes the contributions to discharge from changes in ice thickness due to surface lowering, time-varying firn air content and surface mass change between the flux gates and grounding line. We find that Antarctic Ice Sheet grounding line discharge increased from 1,990 ± 23 Gt yr-1 to 2,205 ± 18 Gt yr-1 between 1996 and 2023, much of which was due to acceleration of ice streams in West Antarctica but with substantial contributions from ice streams in East Antarctica and glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula. The uncertainties in our discharge dataset primarily result from uncertain bed elevation and flux gate location, which account for much of difference between our results and previous studies. It is our intention to update this discharge dataset each month, subject to continued Sentinel-1 acquisitions and funding availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface mass balance (SMB) of the Antarctic Ice Sheet must be better understood to document the current Antarctic contribution to sea-level rise. In situ point data using snow stakes and ice cores are often used to evaluate the state of the ice sheet's mass balance, as well as to assess SMB derived from regional climate models, which are then used to produce future climate projections. However, spatial representativeness of individual point data remains largely unknown, particularly in the coastal regions of Antarctica with highly variable terrain. Here, we compare ice core data collected at the summit of eight ice rises along the coast of Dronning Maud Land, as well as at the Dome Fuji site, and shallow ice-penetrating radar data over these regions. Shallow radar data have the advantage of being spatially extensive, with a temporal resolution that varies between a yearly and multi-year resolution, from which we can derive a SMB record over the entire radar survey. This comparison therefore allows us to evaluate the spatial variability of SMB and the spatial representativeness of ice-core-derived SMB. We found that ice core mean SMB is very local, and the difference with radar-derived SMB increases in a logarithmic fashion as the surface covered by the radar data increases, with a plateau ∼ 1–2 km away from the ice crest for most ice rises, where there are strong wind–topography interactions, and ∼ 10 km where the ice shelves begin. The relative uncertainty in measuring SMB also increases rapidly as we move away from the ice core sites. Five of our ice rise sites show a strong spatial representativeness in terms of temporal variability, while the other three sites show that it is limited to a surface area between 20–120 km 2. The Dome Fuji site, on the other hand, shows a small difference between pointwise and area mean SMB, as well as a strong spatial representativeness in terms of temporal variability. We found no simple parameterization that could represent the spatial variability observed at all the sites. However, these data clearly indicate that local spatial SMB variability must be considered when assessing mass balance, as well as comparing modeled SMB values to point field data, and therefore must be included in the estimate of the uncertainty of the observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internal wave-driven mixing is an important factor in the balance of heat and salt fluxes in the polar regions of the ocean. The breaking internal waves at the edge of the ice cover can essentially enhance the mixing and melting of ice in the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica. The internal solitary waves (ISWs) are generated by various sources, including tidal currents over the bottom topography, the interaction of ice keels with tides, varying in time wind, vortices, and lee waves. In the study, a numerical investigation of the transformation of ISW propagating from open water in the stratified sea under the edge of the ice cover is carried out to compare the depression ISW transformation and loss of energy on smooth ice surfaces, including those on the ice shelf and glacier outlets, with the processes beneath the ridged underside of the ice. They were carried out using a nonhydrostatic model which is based on the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations in the Boussinesq approximation for a continuously stratified fluid. The Smagorinsky turbulence model extended for stratified fluid was used to explicitly describe the small-scale turbulent mixing. Two series of numerical experiments were carried out in an idealized 2D setup. The first series aimed to study processes of the ISW-depression transformation under ice cover of constant submerged ice thickness. A loss of energy was estimated based on the budget of depth-integrated pseudoenergy before and after the wave transformation. The transformation of depression ISW is controlled by the blocking parameter β. For large positive and large negative values of parameter β which is the ratio of the height of the minimum depth of the upper layer under the ice cover to the incident wave amplitude. The energy loss was relatively small for large positive and large negative values of β. The maximal value of energy loss was about 38 % and it is reached at β ≈ 0 for ISW. In the second series of experiments, a number of keels were located underside of the ice layer of constant thickness. The ISW transformation under ridged ice also depends on the blocking parameter β. For large keels (β<0), more than 40 % is lost on the first keel, while for relatively small keels (β>0.3), the losses on the first keel are less than 6 %. Energy losses due to all keels depend on the distance between them which is characterized by the parameter μ which is the ratio keel depth to the distance between keels. If the tidal flow around the large keels is the source of internal waves, then under conditions of strongly ridged ice the waves excited by the tidal flow are dispersed in the vicinity of their formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 79° North Glacier (Nioghalvfjerdsbrae, 79NG) is one of three remaining glaciers with a floating tongue in Greenland. Although the glacier was considered exceptionally stable in the past, earlier studies indicate that the ice tongue has thinned in recent decades. By conducting high-resolution ground-based and airborne radar measurements in conjunction with satellite remote sensing observations, we find significant changes in the geometry of 79NG. In the vicinity of the grounding line, a 500 m high subglacial channel has grown since ~2010 and caused surface lowering of up to 7.6 m a-1. Our results show extreme basal melt rates exceeding 150 m a-1 within a distance of 5 km from the grounding line, where the ice has thinned by 42 % since 1998. We found a heterogeneous distribution of melt rates likely due to variability in water column thickness and channelization of the ice base. Time series of melt rates show a decrease in basal melting since 2018, indicating an inflow of colder water into the cavity below 79NG. We discuss the processes that have led to the changes in geometry and conclude that the inflow of warm ocean currents has led to the extensive thinning of 79NG's floating ice tongue near the grounding line in the last two decades. In contrast, we hypothesize that the growth of the channel results from increased subglacial discharge due to a considerably enlarged area of summer surface melt due to the warming of the atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The largest floating tongue of Greenland's ice sheet, Nioghalvfjerdsbræ, has been relatively stable with respect to areal retreat until 2022. Draining more than 6 % of the ice sheet, a disintegration of Nioghalvfjerdsbræ's floating tongue and subsequent acceleration due to loss in buttressing are likely to lead to sea level rise. Therefore, the stability of the floating tongue is a focus of this study. We employed a suite of observational methods to detect recent changes at the calving front. We found that the calving style has changed since 2016 at the southern part of the eastern calving front, from tongue-type calving to a crack evolution initiated at frontal ice rises reaching 5–7 km and progressing further upstream compared to 2010. The calving front area is further weakened by an area upstream of the main calving front that consists of open water and an ice mélange that has substantially expanded, leading to the formation of a narrow ice bridge. These geometric and mechanical changes may be a precursor of instability of the floating tongue. We complement our study by numerical ice flow simulations to estimate the impact of future ice-front retreat and complete ice shelf disintegration on the discharge of grounded ice. These idealized scenarios reveal that a loss of the south-eastern area of the ice shelf would lead to a 0.2 % increase in ice discharge at the grounding line, while a sudden collapse of the frontal area (46 % of the floating tongue area) will enhance the ice discharge by 5.1 % due to loss in buttressing. Eventually, a full collapse of the floating tongue increases the grounding line flux by 166 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floating ice shelves buttress the Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is losing mass rapidly mainly due to ocean-driven melting and the associated disruption to glacial dynamics. The local ocean circulation near ice shelves is therefore important for the prediction of future ice mass loss and related sea-level rise as it determines the water mass exchange, heat transport under the ice shelf and resultant melting. However, the dynamics controlling the near-coastal circulation are not fully understood. A cyclonic (i.e. clockwise) gyre circulation (27 km radius) in front of the Pine Island Ice Shelf has previously been identified in both numerical models and velocity observations. Mooring data further revealed a potential reversal of this gyre during an abnormally cold period. Here we present ship-based observations from 2019 to the west of Thwaites Ice Shelf, revealing another gyre (13 km radius) for the first time in this habitually ice-covered region, rotating in the opposite (anticyclonic, anticlockwise) direction to the gyre near Pine Island Ice Shelf, despite similar wind forcing. We use an idealised configuration of MITgcm, with idealised forcing based on ERA5 climatological wind fields and a range of idealised sea ice conditions typical for the region, to reproduce key features of the observed gyres near Pine Island Ice Shelf and Thwaites Ice Shelf. The model driven solely by wind forcing in the presence of ice can reproduce the horizontal structure and direction of both gyres. We show that the modelled gyre direction depends upon the spatial difference in the ocean surface stress, which can be affected by the applied wind stress curl filed, the percentage of wind stress transferred through the ice, and the angle between the wind direction and the sea ice edge. The presence of ice, either it is fast ice/ice shelves blocking the effect of wind or mobile sea ice enhancing the effect of wind, has the potential to reverse the gyre direction relative to ice-free conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ice shelves in the Amundsen Sea are thinning rapidly as ocean currents bring warm water into the cavities beneath the floating ice. While the reported melt rates for the Getz ice shelf are comparatively low for the region, its size makes it one of the largest freshwater sources around Antarctica, with potential consequences for e.g. bottom water formation downstream. Here, we use two year long mooring records (2016-2018) and 16 year long regional model simulations to describe, for the first time, the hydrography and circulation in the vicinity of the ice front between Siple and Carney Island. We find that, throughout the mooring record, temperatures in the trough remain below 0.15 °C, more than 1 °C lower than in the neighboring Siple and Dotson Trough, and we observe a mean current (0.03 m s-1) directed towards the ice front. The variability in the heat transport towards the ice front appears to be governed by wind stress over the Amundsen Sea Polynya region, potentially through interactions with the coastal current, although this hypothesis could not be confirmed by the numerical model. The model simulations suggest that the heat content in the trough during the observed period was lower than normal, due to anomalously low summertime sea ice concentration and weak winds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing melt of ice sheets at their floating or vertical interfaces with the ocean is a major driver of marine ice sheet retreat and sea level rise. However, the extent to which warm, salty seawater may drive melting under the grounded portions of ice sheets is still not well understood. Previous work has explored the possibility that dense seawater intrudes beneath relatively light subglacial freshwater discharge, similar to the "salt wedge" observed in many estuarine systems. In this study, we develop a generalized theory of layered seawater intrusion under grounded ice, including where subglacial hydrology occurs as a macroporous water sheet over impermeable beds or as microporous Darcy flow through permeable till. Using predictions from this theory, we show that seawater intrusion over flat or reverse-sloping impermeable beds may feasibly occur up to tens of kilometers upstream of a glacier terminus or grounding line. On the other hand, seawater is unlikely to intrude more than tens of meters through permeable till. Simulations using the Ice-sheet and Sea-level System Model (ISSM) show that even just a few hundred meters of basal melt caused by seawater intrusion upstream of marine ice sheet grounding lines can cause projections of marine ice sheet volume loss to be 10 %–50 % higher. Kilometers of intrusion-induced basal melt can cause projected ice sheet volume loss to more than double. These results suggest that further observational, experimental and numerical investigations are needed to determine the conditions under which seawater intrusion occurs and whether it will indeed drive rapid marine ice sheet retreat and sea level rise in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf (TEIS) buttresses the eastern grounded portion of Thwaites Glacier through contact with a pinning point at its seaward limit. Loss of this ice shelf will promote further acceleration of Thwaites Glacier. Understanding the dynamic controls and structural integrity of the TEIS is therefore important to estimating Thwaites' future sea-level contribution. We present a ∼ 20-year record of change on the TEIS that reveals the dynamic controls governing the ice shelf's past behaviour and ongoing evolution. We derived ice velocities from MODIS and Sentinel-1 image data using feature tracking and speckle tracking, respectively, and we combined these records with ITS_LIVE and GOLIVE velocity products from Landsat-7 and Landsat-8. In addition, we estimated surface lowering and basal melt rates using the Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA) DEM in comparison to ICESat and ICESat-2 altimetry. Early in the record, TEIS flow dynamics were strongly controlled by the neighbouring Thwaites Western Ice Tongue (TWIT). Flow patterns on the TEIS changed following the disintegration of the TWIT around 2008, with a new divergence in ice flow developing around the pinning point at its seaward limit. Simultaneously, the TEIS developed new rifting that extends from the shear zone upstream of the ice rise and increased strain concentration within this shear zone. As these horizontal changes occurred, sustained thinning driven by basal melt reduced ice thickness, particularly near the grounding line and in the shear zone area upstream of the pinning point. This evidence of weakening at a rapid pace suggests that the TEIS is likely to fully destabilize in the next few decades, leading to further acceleration of Thwaites Glacier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radar reflections from the interior of the Greenland ice sheet contain a comprehensive archive of past accumulation rates, ice dynamics, and basal melting. Combining these data with dynamic ice sheet models may greatly aid model calibration, improve past and future sea level estimates, and enable insights into past ice sheet dynamics that neither models nor data could achieve alone. Unfortunately, simulating the continental-scale ice sheet stratigraphy represents a major challenge for current ice sheet models. In this study, we present the first three-dimensional ice sheet model that explicitly simulates the Greenland englacial stratigraphy. Individual layers of accumulation are represented on a grid whose vertical axis is time so that they do not exchange mass with each other as the flow of ice deforms them. This isochronal advection scheme does not influence the ice dynamics and only requires modest input data from a host thermomechanical ice sheet model, making it easy to transfer to a range of models. Using an ensemble of simulations, we show that direct comparison with the dated radiostratigraphy data yields notably more accurate results than calibrating simulations based on total ice thickness. We show that the isochronal scheme produces a more reliable simulation of the englacial age profile than traditional age tracers. The interpretation of ice dynamics at different times is possible but limited by uncertainties in the upper and lower boundary conditions, namely temporal variations in surface mass balance and basal friction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The northern sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet is considered to be particularly susceptible to ice mass loss arising from increased glacier discharge in the coming decades. However, the past extent and dynamics of outlet glaciers in this region, and hence their vulnerability to climate change, are poorly documented. In the summer of 2019, the Swedish icebreaker Oden entered the previously unchartered waters of Sherard Osborn Fjord, where Ryder Glacier drains approximately 2 % of Greenland's ice sheet into the Lincoln Sea. Here we reconstruct the Holocene dynamics of Ryder Glacier and its ice tongue by combining radiocarbon dating with sedimentary facies analyses along a 45 km transect of marine sediment cores collected between the modern ice tongue margin and the mouth of the fjord. The results illustrate that Ryder Glacier retreated from a grounded position at the fjord mouth during the Early Holocene (> 10.7±0.4 ka cal BP) and receded more than 120 km to the end of Sherard Osborn Fjord by the Middle Holocene (6.3±0.3 ka cal BP), likely becoming completely land-based. A re-advance of Ryder Glacier occurred in the Late Holocene, becoming marine-based around 3.9±0.4 ka cal BP. An ice tongue, similar in extent to its current position was established in the Late Holocene (between 3.6±0.4 and 2.9±0.4 ka cal BP) and extended to its maximum historical position near the fjord mouth around 0.9±0.3 ka cal BP. Laminated, clast-poor sediments were deposited during the entire retreat and regrowth phases, suggesting the persistence of an ice tongue that only collapsed when the glacier retreated behind a prominent topographic high at the landward end of the fjord. Sherard Osborn Fjord narrows inland, is constrained by steep-sided cliffs, contains a number of bathymetric pinning points that also shield the modern ice tongue and grounding zone from warm Atlantic waters, and has a shallowing inland sub-ice topography. These features are conducive to glacier stability and can explain the persistence of Ryder's ice tongue while the glacier remained marine-based. However, the physiography of the fjord did not halt the dramatic retreat of Ryder Glacier under the relatively mild changes in climate forcing during the Holocene. Presently, Ryder Glacier is grounded more than 40 km seaward of its inferred position during the Middle Holocene, highlighting the potential for substantial retreat in response to ongoing climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outflow of supercooled Ice Shelf Water from the conjoined Ross and McMurdo ice shelf cavity augments fast ice thickness and forms a thick sub-ice platelet layer in McMurdo Sound. Here, we investigate whether the CryoSat-2 satellite radar altimeter can consistently detect the higher freeboard caused by the thicker fast ice combined with the buoyant forcing of a sub-ice platelet layer beneath. Freeboards obtained from CryoSat-2 were compared with 4 years of drill-hole-measured sea ice freeboard, snow depth, and sea ice and sub-ice platelet layer thicknesses in McMurdo Sound in November 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2018. The spatial distribution of higher CryoSat-2 freeboard concurred with the distributions of thicker ice-shelf-influenced fast ice and the sub-ice platelet layer. The mean CryoSat-2 freeboard was 0.07–0.09 m higher over the main path of supercooled Ice Shelf Water outflow, in the centre of the sound, relative to the west and east. In this central region, the mean CryoSat-2-derived ice thickness was 35 % larger than the mean drill-hole-measured fast ice thickness. We attribute this overestimate in satellite-altimeter-obtained ice thickness to the additional buoyant forcing of the sub-ice platelet layer which had a mean thickness of 3.90 m in the centre. We demonstrate the capability of CryoSat-2 to detect higher Ice Shelf Water-influenced fast ice freeboard in McMurdo Sound. Further development of this method could provide a tool to identify regions of ice-shelf-influenced fast ice elsewhere on the Antarctic coastline with adequate information on the snow layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronologies of glacier deposits in the Transantarctic Mountains provide important constraints on grounding-line retreat during the last deglaciation in the Ross Sea. However, between Beardmore Glacier and Ross Island – a distance of some 600 km – the existing chronologies are generally sparse and far from the modern grounding line, leaving the past dynamics of this vast region largely unconstrained. We present exposure ages of glacial deposits at three locations alongside the Darwin–Hatherton Glacier System – including within 10 km of the modern grounding line – that record several hundred meters of Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene thickening relative to present. As the ice sheet grounding line in the Ross Sea retreated, Hatherton Glacier thinned steadily from about 9 until about 3 ka. Our data are equivocal about the maximum thickness and Mid-Holocene to Early Holocene history at the mouth of Darwin Glacier, allowing for two conflicting deglaciation scenarios: (1) ∼500 m of thinning from 9 to 3 ka, similar to Hatherton Glacier, or (2) ∼950 m of thinning, with a rapid pulse of ∼600 m thinning at around 5 ka. We test these two scenarios using a 1.5-dimensional flowband model, forced by ice thickness changes at the mouth of Darwin Glacier and evaluated by fit to the chronology of deposits at Hatherton Glacier. The constraints from Hatherton Glacier are consistent with the interpretation that the mouth of Darwin Glacier thinned steadily by ∼500 m from 9 to 3 ka. Rapid pulses of thinning at the mouth of Darwin Glacier are ruled out by the data at Hatherton Glacier. This contrasts with some of the available records from the mouths of other outlet glaciers in the Transantarctic Mountains, many of which thinned by hundreds of meters over roughly a 1000-year period in the Early Holocene. The deglaciation histories of Darwin and Hatherton glaciers are best matched by a steady decrease in catchment area through the Holocene, suggesting that Byrd and/or Mulock glaciers may have captured roughly half of the catchment area of Darwin and Hatherton glaciers during the last deglaciation. An ensemble of three-dimensional ice sheet model simulations suggest that Darwin and Hatherton glaciers are strongly buttressed by convergent flow with ice from neighboring Byrd and Mulock glaciers, and by lateral drag past Minna Bluff, which could have led to a pattern of retreat distinct from other glaciers throughout the Transantarctic Mountains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date the final stage in deglaciation of the Greenland shelf, when a contiguous ice sheet margin on the inner shelf transitioned to outlet glaciers in troughs with intervening ice-free areas, we generated cosmogenic 10 Be dates from bedrock knobs on six outlying islands along a stretch of 300 km of the southwestern Greenland coast. Despite 10 Be inheritance influencing some dates, the ages generally support a Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) margin that retreated off the inner shelf during the middle Younger Dryas (YD) period. Published 10 Be- and 14 C-dated records show that this history of the GrIS margin is seen in other parts of Greenland but with large variations in the extent and speed of retreat, sometimes even between neighbouring areas. Areas with a chronology extending into the Allerød period show no marked ice margin change at the Allerød–YD transition except in northernmost Greenland. In contrast, landforms on the shelf (moraines and grounding zone wedges) have been suggested to indicate YD readvances or long-lasting ice margin stillstands on the middle shelf. However, these features have been dated primarily by correlation with cold periods in the ice core temperature records. Ice margin retreat during the middle and late YD is explained by advection of warm subsurface water at the ice margin and by increased seasonality. Our results therefore point to the complexity of the climate–ice margin relation and to the urgent need for direct dating of the early deglaciation history of Greenland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polar ice sheets are important components of the Earth system. As the geometries of land, ocean and ice sheets evolve, they must be consistently captured within the lexicon of geodesy. Understanding the interplay between the processes such as ice-sheet dynamics, solid-Earth deformation, and sea-level adjustment requires both geodetically consistent and mass-conserving descriptions of evolving land and ocean domains, grounded ice sheets and floating ice shelves, and their respective interfaces. Here we present mathematical descriptions of a generic level set that can be used to track both the grounding lines and coastlines, in light of ice–ocean mass exchange and complex feedbacks from the solid Earth and sea level. We next present a unified method to accurately compute the sea-level contribution of evolving ice sheets based on the change in ice thickness, bedrock elevation and mean sea level caused by any geophysical processes. Our formalism can be applied to arbitrary geometries and at all timescales. While it can be used for applications with modeling, observations and the combination of two, it is best suited for Earth system models, comprising ice sheets, solid Earth and sea level, that seek to conserve mass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent satellite data have revealed widespread grounding line retreat, glacier thinning, and associated mass loss along the Bellingshausen Sea sector, leading to increased concern for the stability of this region of Antarctica. While satellites have greatly improved our understanding of surface conditions, a lack of radio-echo sounding (RES) data in this region has restricted our analysis of subglacial topography, ice thickness and ice flux. In this paper we analyse 3,000 km of 150 MHz airborne RES data collected using the PASIN2 radar system (flown at 3-5 km line spacing) to investigate the subglacial controls on ice flow near to the grounding lines of Ers, Envisat, Cryosat, Grace, Sentinel, Lidke and Landsat ice streams as well as Hall and Nikitin glaciers. We find that each outlet is topographically controlled, and when ice thickness is combined with surface velocity data from MEaSUREs (Mouiginot et al., 2019), these outlets are found to discharge over 39.2 ± 0.79 Gt a-1 of ice to floating ice shelves and the Southern Ocean. Our RES measurements reveal that outlet flows are grounded more than 300 m below sea level, and that there is limited topographic support for inland grounding line re-stabilisation in a future retreating scenario, with several ice stream beds dipping inland at ~ 5 degrees per km. These data reinforce the importance of accurate bed topography to model and understand the controls on inland ice flow and grounding line position as well as overall mass balance / sea level change estimates. RES data described in this paper are available through the UK Polar Data Center: https://doi.org/10.5285/ E07D62BF-D58C-4187-A019-59BE998939CC (Corr and Robinson, 2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the result of the third Marine Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project, MISMIP+. MISMIP+ is intended to be a benchmark for ice-flow models which include fast sliding marine ice streams and floating ice shelves and in particular a treatment of viscous stress that is sufficient to model buttressing, where upstream ice flow is restrained by a downstream ice shelf. A set of idealized experiments first tests that models are able to maintain a steady state with the grounding line located on a retrograde slope due to buttressing and then explore scenarios where a reduction in that buttressing causes ice stream acceleration, thinning, and grounding line retreat. The majority of participating models passed the first test and then produced similar responses to the loss of buttressing. We find that the most important distinction between models in this particular type of simulation is in the treatment of sliding at the bed, with other distinctions – notably the difference between the simpler and more complete treatments of englacial stress but also the differences between numerical methods – taking a secondary role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ice sheets lose the majority of their mass through outlet glaciers or ice streams, corridors of fast ice moving multiple orders of magnitude more rapidly than the surrounding ice. The future stability of these corridors of fast-moving ice depends sensitively on the behaviour of their boundaries, namely shear margins, grounding zones and the basal sliding interface, where the stress field is complex and fundamentally three-dimensional. These boundaries are prone to thermomechanical localisation, which can be captured numerically only with high temporal and spatial resolution. Thus, better understanding the coupled physical processes that govern the response of these boundaries to climate change necessitates a non-linear, full Stokes model that affords high resolution and scales well in three dimensions. This paper's goal is to contribute to the growing toolbox for modelling thermomechanical deformation in ice by leveraging graphical processing unit (GPU) accelerators' parallel scalability. We propose FastICE, a numerical model that relies on pseudo-transient iterations to solve the implicit thermomechanical coupling between ice motion and temperature involving shear heating and a temperature-dependent ice viscosity. FastICE is based on the finite-difference discretisation, and we implement the pseudo-time integration in a matrix-free way. We benchmark the mechanical Stokes solver against the finite-element code Elmer/Ice and report good agreement among the results. We showcase a parallel version of FastICE to run on GPU-accelerated distributed memory machines, reaching a parallel efficiency of 99 %. We show that our model is particularly useful for improving our process-based understanding of flow localisation in the complex transition zones bounding rapidly moving ice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 130 km 2 tabular iceberg calved from Petermann Glacier in northwestern Greenland on 5 August 2012. Subsequent fracturing generated many individual large "ice islands", including Petermann ice island (PII)-A-1-f, which drifted between Nares Strait and the North Atlantic. Thinning caused by basal and surface ablation increases the likelihood that these ice islands will fracture and disperse further, thereby increasing the risk to marine transport and infrastructure as well as affecting the distribution of freshwater from the polar ice sheets. We use a unique stationary and mobile ice-penetrating radar dataset collected over four campaigns to PII-A-1-f to quantify and contextualize ice island surface and basal ablation rates and calibrate a forced convection basal ablation model. The ice island thinned by 4.7 m over 11 months. The majority of thinning (73 %) resulted from basal ablation, but the volume loss associated with basal ablation was ∼12 times less than that caused by areal reduction (e.g. wave erosion, calving, and fracture). However, localized thinning may have influenced a large fracture event that occurred along a section of ice that was ∼40 m thinner than the remainder of the ice island. The calibration of the basal ablation model, the first known to be conducted with field data, supports assigning the theoretically derived value of 1.2×10 -5 m 2/5 s -1/5 ∘ C -1 to the model's bulk heat transfer coefficient with the use of an empirically estimated ice–ocean interface temperature. Overall, this work highlights the value of systematically collecting ice island field data for analyzing deterioration processes, assessing their connections to ice island morphology, and adequately developing models for operational and research purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe new Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) ice thickness constraints for three locations spanning the Weddell Sea Embayment (WSE) of Antarctica. Samples collected from the Shackleton Range, Pensacola Mountains, and the Lassiter Coast constrain the LGM thickness of the Slessor Glacier, Foundation Ice Stream, and grounded ice proximal to the modern Ronne Ice Shelf edge on the Antarctic Peninsula, respectively. Previous attempts to reconstruct LGM-to-present ice thickness changes around the WSE used measurements of long-lived cosmogenic nuclides, primarily 10Be. An absence of post-LGM apparent exposure ages at many sites led to LGM thickness reconstructions that were spatially highly variable and inconsistent with flow line modelling. Estimates for the contribution of the ice sheet occupying the WSE at the LGM to global sea level since deglaciation vary by an order of magnitude, from 1.4 to 14.1 m of sea level equivalent. Here we use a short-lived cosmogenic nuclide, in situ-produced 14C , which is less susceptible to inheritance problems than 10Be and other long-lived nuclides. We use in situ 14C to evaluate the possibility that sites with no post-LGM exposure ages are biased by cosmogenic nuclide inheritance due to surface preservation by cold-based ice and non-deposition of LGM-aged drift. Our measurements show that the Slessor Glacier was between 310 and up to 655 m thicker than present at the LGM. The Foundation Ice Stream was at least 800 m thicker, and ice on the Lassiter Coast was at least 385 m thicker than present at the LGM. With evidence for LGM thickening at all of our study sites, our in situ 14C measurements indicate that the long-lived nuclide measurements of previous studies were influenced by cosmogenic nuclide inheritance. Our inferred LGM configuration, which is primarily based on minimum ice thickness constraints and thus does not constrain an upper limit, indicates a relatively modest contribution to sea level rise since the LGM of < 4.6 m, and possibly as little as < 1.5 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smith, Pope, and Kohler glaciers and the corresponding Crosson and Dotson ice shelves have undergone speedup, thinning, and rapid grounding-line retreat in recent years, leaving them in a state likely conducive to future retreat. We conducted a suite of numerical model simulations of these glaciers and compared the results to observations to determine the processes controlling their recent evolution. The model simulations indicate that the state of these glaciers in the 1990s was not inherently unstable, i.e., that small perturbations to the grounding line would not necessarily have caused the large retreat that has been observed. Instead, sustained, elevated melt at the grounding line was needed to cause the observed retreat. Weakening of the margins of Crosson Ice Shelf may have hastened the onset of grounding-line retreat but is unlikely to have initiated these rapid changes without an accompanying increase in melt. In the simulations that most closely match the observed thinning, speedup, and retreat, modeled grounding-line retreat and ice loss continue unabated throughout the 21st century, and subsequent retreat along Smith Glacier's trough appears likely. Given the rapid progression of grounding-line retreat in the model simulations, thinning associated with the retreat of Smith Glacier may reach the ice divide and undermine a portion of the Thwaites catchment as quickly as changes initiated at the Thwaites terminus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of Antarctic ice shelves are bounded by grounded ice rises. These ice rises exhibit local flow fields that partially oppose the flow of the surrounding ice shelves. Formation of ice rises is accompanied by a characteristic upward-arching internal stratigraphy ("Raymond arches"), whose geometry can be analysed to infer information about past ice-sheet changes in areas where other archives such as rock outcrops are missing. Here we present an improved modelling framework to study ice-rise evolution using a satellite-velocity calibrated, isothermal, and isotropic 3-D full-Stokes model including grounding-line dynamics at the required mesh resolution (< 500 m). This overcomes limitations of previous studies where ice-rise modelling has been restricted to 2-D and excluded the coupling between the ice shelf and ice rise. We apply the model to the Ekström Ice Shelf, Antarctica, containing two ice rises. Our simulations investigate the effect of surface mass balance and ocean perturbations onto ice-rise divide position and interpret possible resulting unique Raymond arch geometries. Our results show that changes in the surface mass balance result in immediate and sustained divide migration (>2.0 m yr -1) of up to 3.5 km. In contrast, instantaneous ice-shelf disintegration causes a short-lived and delayed (by 60–100 years) response of smaller magnitude (<0.75 m yr -1). The model tracks migration of a triple junction and synchronous ice-divide migration in both ice rises with similar magnitude but differing rates. The model is suitable for glacial/interglacial simulations on the catchment scale, providing the next step forward to unravel the ice-dynamic history stored in ice rises all around Antarctica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Changes in the depth of the freshwater-seawater interface in epishelf lakes have been used to infer long-term changes in the minimum thickness of ice shelves; however, little is known about the dynamics of epishelf lakes and what other factors may influence their depth. Continuous observations collected between 2011 and 2014 in the Milne Fiord epishelf lake, in the Canadian Arctic, showed that the depth of the halocline varied seasonally by up to 3.3m, which was comparable to interannual variability. The seasonal depth variation was controlled by the magnitude of surface meltwater inflow and the hydraulics of the inferred outflow pathway, a narrow basal channel in the Milne Ice Shelf. When seasonal variation and an episodic mixing of the halocline were accounted for, long-term records of depth indicated there was no significant change in thickness of ice along the basal channel from 1983 to 2004, followed by a period of steady thinning at 0.50ma-1 between 2004 and 2011. Rapid thinning at 1.15ma-1 then occurred from 2011 to 2014, corresponding to a period of warming regional air temperatures. Continued warming is expected to lead to the breakup of the ice shelf and the imminent loss of the last known epishelf lake in the Arctic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last glacial cycle, the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) has passed from an interglacial state, warmer than present day (PD), slowly into a glacial state, known as the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and then deglaciated on a faster timescale into the Holocene and PD conditions. Although we have proxy data of the size and extent of the ice sheet for the LGM, neither the oceanic temperatures of the Southern Ocean, nor the precipitation fields are well constrained. Also the time evolution of the ice volume during the glacial cycle is not fully clear. It is well assumed that it follows a sawtooth pattern, but from a modelling perspective different combinations of parameters and boundary conditions can give rise to plausible Antarctic configurations. Here we aim to study the uncertainty in AIS evolution resulting from ice-sheet model parameters, as well as the imposed climatic fields used as forcing. For this purpose we use the three-dimensional thermomechanical hybrid ice-sheet-shelf model Yelmo, which treats ice dynamics via the shallow-ce and shallow-shelf approximations, and accounts for basal melt below ice shelves and a subgrid parameterisation for treatment of the grounding line. We will focus on the effect of different climatic fields, such as precipitation and oceanic temperatures, as well as the effect of different enhancement factors and basal drag choices for reproducing consistent Antarctic configurations in the LGM and the PD. Improving our understanding of the effect of different ice-dynamics configurations in various climatic scenarios will help to better understand the past evolution of the AIS and potentially constrain its future evolution as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thwaites Glacier is likely to make substantial contributions to global sea level in the coming decades. How conditions evolve at its ice-front will be important in determining the rate of these future sea level contributions. Here, we investigate changes at the ice-front of Thwaites Glacier in response to ocean-induced thinning over the past 20 years. We show that between 2006 and 2012 its ice tongue transitioned from a structurally intact floating tongue capable of producing large tabular icebergs to a mélange of fused icebergs and sea-ice. We link the structural weakening of the Thwaites Ice Tongue as it transitioned to mélange to increases in the velocity of Thwaites Glacier over the same time period. Through utilising the high-temporal resolution velocity monitoring capabilities (up to every 6 days) of the Landsat-8 and Sentinel-1 satellites between November 2013 and September 2018, we show that despite the weakening of the Thwaites Ice Tongue to mélange, it still provided some buttressing to the Thwaites Glacier through the interaction with its Eastern Ice Shelf. Importantly, the transition to mélange conditions increases the sensitivity of ice ice-front to future landfast sea-ice break-up events. This may have important implications for the stability of its remaining floating ice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ice is one of the most anisotropic natural materials but it is common knowledge in our community that anisotropy in ice is: a) a second order factor that can be ignored, b) easily assimilated into isotropic models by tuning certain parameters, or c) so complicated that it is better to ignore. Interestingly, any measurement of anisotropy in polar ice shows that ice develops crystalline preferred-orientation fabrics that produce strong mechanical, optical and dielectric anisotropic properties. Here, we look in detail at polarimetric radar measurements in different regions of East and West Antarctica. We use a ground-based phase-sensitive frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar (ApRES) and a matrix-based model to study the radio-waves depolarization and anisotropic scattering (Fujita et al, 2006). We find that anisotropy is widespread and an excellent archive of past ice flow conditions. We use it here to extract details of the recent deglaciation of the Ross and Ronny ice shelves over the last thousands of years. Also, because the length of the record is related to the advection time of the ice flow, we use our method to show that a candidate ice core location near Dome C, for the Beyond Epica Oldest Ice Core project, has been under steady ice-flow conditions over the last million years or so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glaciers in the Amundsen Sea are rapidly thinning and retreating as a result of ocean-induced changes in ice-shelf buttressing. Here we use area-wide projections of ice shelf thickness and velocities to investigate changes in buttressing over the next 150 years under two limiting scenarios, i.e. sustained warm and cold ocean conditions. Our results are based on simulations using an asynchronous coupling between a high-resolution regional configuration of the 3D ocean model MITgcm, and the state-of-the-art SSA ice flow model Úa, with a coupling timestep of 6 months. Results provide the first Amundsen Sea-wide projections of glacier dynamics that fully account for the important feedbacks between ice-shelf geometry and ocean-induced melting. Limited changes in buttressing occur for existing ice shelves in a cold ocean scenario. However, a regionally diverse response is found for ice shelves subjected to warm ocean forcing, with increasing areas of ice providing reduced buttressing as the grounding line retreats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 2017/18 season of the Aotearoa Ross Ice Shelf Drilling Program two climate and oceanographically motivated hot water drill boreholes were drilled through ~370 m of ice in the central Ross Ice Shelf. These boreholes were spaced at a distance of ~560 m along the ice flow direction. This provided an unique opportunity to use cryoseismology to study ice shelf fabrics and temperature, which both are crucial parameters for ice deformation behavior. One borehole was instrumented with eight frozen in 3-component, 15 Hz seismometers at 35 m spacing between depths of 80 m and 325 m inside the ice column. These recorded seismic waves excited from a sparker borehole seismic source that was fired in 10 m spacing between depths of 70 m and 270 m inside the second borehole. This is, to our knowledge, a world-first seismic cross-hole experiment in ice. Shooting seismic waves along nearly isothermal raypaths through the ice shelf allows an multi-depth investigation of englacial temperatures from measurements of seismic attenuation and velocity. Thermistors that are collocated with the borehole seismometers provide temperature measurements at depth to calibrate the seismic observations.A multi-azimuth and multi-offset experiment using surface hammer-and-plate and shear-wave seismic sources was also recorded on the eight-level borehole sensors to study seismic anisotropy of the ice shelf. The observation of variable seismic shear wave splitting along different raypaths informs the ice shelf mechanical anisotropy at this location that formed from flow deformation and will influence future flow dynamics. A potential explanation of the observed seismic anisotropy from a synthetic crystallographic preferred orientation forward model in the ice with its implications for ice shelf deformation history is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Filchner Ice Shelf System (FISS) located at the southern boundary of the Weddell sea buttresses the outflow of ice flows upstream. Work by Hellmer et al. (2012; 2017) suggests that the intrusion of warm circumpolar deep water in the future could lead to dramatic, irreversible changes for the ice shelf system, making the FISS system a major component of Antarctica's contribution to projected sea level rise. First-order questions remain however, as to the present day factors influencing FISS' melt rates on inter-annual timescales. Recent in-situ moorings and a seismic survey (e.g. (Rosier et al., 2018)) by the British Antarctic Survey offer an unprecedented opportunity to improve and evaluate numerical simulations of the region. Here, using eddy-permitting NEMO regional ocean model simulations with static ice-shelves, we focus on understanding the large-scale ocean and atmospheric circulation patterns that influence melt rates over the re-analysis period. In particular, we show that the remote atmospheric forcing plays a strong role in controlling Ronne's bottom water properties and modulates inter-annual melt rates. The eddy-permitting results presented shed light on the historical context of the BAS S03/S05 mooring observations and the AWI POLARSTERN FISS transects of 1980 and 1995. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ice rises that form within the interior of ice shelves provide significant buttressing to grounded ice. The Crary Ice Rise is located just downstream of the Whillans Ice Stream's grounding line. Previous work has demonstrated that the evolution of the Crary Ice Rise and the Whillans Ice Stream are linked. Thus, we conducted a geophysical experiment to understand the origin and evolution of the Crary Ice Rise. Seismic data reveal a complex sedimentary structure is present beneath the Crary Ice Rise. This indicates that the topographic high responsible for the ice rise is not due to an elevated region of exposed bedrock. Instead, it appears that the topographic high has been formed as the result of both the regions tectonic history and interactions with the overriding ice sheet. We are continuing to explore geodynamic implications for the observed geologic structures and their potential influence on ice sheet behavior. Analysis of ICESat altimetry indicates that the ice rise is slowly migrating. Understanding the interaction between a stagnating ice stream and an ice rise will improve interpretations of ice stream behavior over centennial time-scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]