Mass balance of the Sor Rondane glacial system, East Antarctica
Callens, D.; Thonnard, N.; Lenaerts, J.; van Wessem, J.; van de Berg, W.; Matsuoka, K.; Pattyn, F. (2015). Mass balance of the Sor Rondane glacial system, East Antarctica. Ann. Glaciol. 56(70): 63-69. https://dx.doi.org/10.3189/2015AoG70A010
In: Annals of Glaciology. International Glaciological Society: Cambridge. ISSN 0260-3055; e-ISSN 1727-5644, more
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| Author keywords |
accumulation; atmosphere/ice/ocean interactions; ice-sheet mass balance;radio-echo sounding |
| Authors | | Top |
- Callens, D., more
- Thonnard, N., more
- Lenaerts, J.
- van Wessem, J.
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- van de Berg, W.
- Matsuoka, K.
- Pattyn, F., more
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| Abstract |
Mass changes of polar ice sheets have an important societal impact, because they affect global sea level. Estimating the current mass budget of ice sheets is equivalent to determining the balance between surface mass gain through precipitation and outflow across the grounding line. For the Antarctic ice sheet, grounding line outflow is governed by oceanic processes and outlet glacier dynamics. In this study, we compute the mass budget of major outlet glaciers in the eastern Dronning Maud Land sector of the Antarctic ice sheet using the input/output method. Input is given by recent surface accumulation estimates (SMB) of the whole drainage basin. The outflow at the grounding line is determined from the radar data of a recent airborne survey and satellite-based velocities using a flow model of combined plug flow and simple shear. This approach is an improvement on previous studies, as the ice thickness is measured, rather than being estimated from hydrostatic equilibrium. In line with the general thickening of the ice sheet over this sector, we estimate the regional mass balance in this area at 3.15 ± 8.23 Gt a–1 according to the most recent SMB model results. |
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