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| Titel |
Constraining the recent mass balance of Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers, West Antarctica, with airborne observations of snow accumulation |
| VerfasserIn |
B. Medley, I. Joughin, B. E. Smith, S. B. Das, E. J. Steig, H. Conway, S. Gogineni, C. Lewis, A. S. Criscitiello, J. R. McConnell, M. R. van den Broeke, J. T. M. Lenaerts, D. H. Bromwich, J. P. Nicolas, C. Leuschen |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1994-0416
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: The Cryosphere ; 8, no. 4 ; Nr. 8, no. 4 (2014-07-31), S.1375-1392 |
| Datensatznummer |
250116254
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/tc-8-1375-2014.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| In Antarctica, uncertainties in mass input and output translate directly
into uncertainty in glacier mass balance and thus in sea level impact. While
remotely sensed observations of ice velocity and thickness over the major
outlet glaciers have improved our understanding of ice loss to the ocean,
snow accumulation over the vast Antarctic interior remains largely
unmeasured. Here, we show that an airborne radar system, combined with
ice-core glaciochemical analysis, provide the means necessary to measure the
accumulation rate at the catchment-scale along the Amundsen Sea coast of
West Antarctica. We used along-track radar-derived accumulation to generate
a 1985–2009 average accumulation grid that resolves moderate- to
large-scale features (>25 km) over the Pine Island–Thwaites
glacier drainage system. Comparisons with estimates from atmospheric models
and gridded climatologies generally show our results as having less
accumulation in the lower-elevation coastal zone but greater accumulation in the
interior. Ice discharge, measured over discrete time intervals between 1994
and 2012, combined with our catchment-wide accumulation rates provide an
18-year mass balance history for the sector. While Thwaites Glacier lost the
most ice in the mid-1990s, Pine Island Glacier's losses increased
substantially by 2006, overtaking Thwaites as the largest regional
contributor to sea-level rise. The trend of increasing discharge for both
glaciers, however, appears to have leveled off since 2008. |
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