Article (Scientific journals)
Application of a two-step approach for mapping ice thickness to various glacier types on Svalbard
Fürst, Johannes Jakob; Gillet-Chaulet, Fabien; Benham, Toby J. et al.
2017In The Cryosphere
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Abstract :
[en] The basal topography is largely unknown beneath most glaciers and ice caps, and many attempts have been made to estimate a thickness field from other more accessible information at the surface. Here, we present a two-step reconstruction approach for ice thickness that solves mass conservation over single or several connected drainage basins. The approach is applied to a variety of test geometries with abundant thickness measurements including marine- and land-terminating glaciers as well as a 2400 km2 ice cap on Svalbard. The input requirements are kept to a minimum for the first step. In this step, a geometrically controlled, non-local flux solution is converted into thickness values relying on the shallow ice approximation (SIA). In a second step, the thickness field is updated along fast-flowing glacier trunks on the basis of velocity observations. Both steps account for available thickness measurements. Each thickness field is presented together with an error-estimate map based on a formal propagation of input uncertainties. These error estimates point out that the thickness field is least constrained near ice divides or in other stagnant areas. Withholding a share of the thickness measurements, error estimates tend to overestimate mismatch values in a median sense. We also have to accept an aggregate uncertainty of at least 25 % in the reconstructed thickness field for glaciers with very sparse or no observations. For Vestfonna ice cap (VIC), a previous ice volume estimate based on the same measurement record as used here has to be corrected upward by 22 %. We also find that a 13 % area fraction of the ice cap is in fact grounded below sea level. The former 5 % estimate from a direct measurement interpolation exceeds an aggregate maximum range of 6–23 % as inferred from the error estimates here.
Disciplines :
Earth sciences & physical geography
Author, co-author :
Fürst, Johannes Jakob
Gillet-Chaulet, Fabien
Benham, Toby J.
Dowdeswell, Julian A.
Grabiec, Mariusz
Navarro, Francisco
Pettersson, R.
Moholdt, G.
Nuth, C.
Sass, B.
Aas, Kjetil
Fettweis, Xavier  ;  Université de Liège > Département de géographie > Climatologie et Topoclimatologie
Lang, Charlotte ;  Université de Liège > Département de géographie > Climatologie et Topoclimatologie
Seehaus, T.
Braun, M.
More authors (5 more) Less
Language :
English
Title :
Application of a two-step approach for mapping ice thickness to various glacier types on Svalbard
Publication date :
01 September 2017
Journal title :
The Cryosphere
ISSN :
1994-0416
eISSN :
1994-0424
Publisher :
Copernicus, Katlenberg-Lindau, Germany
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Tags :
CÉCI : Consortium des Équipements de Calcul Intensif
Funders :
F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique [BE]
CÉCI - Consortium des Équipements de Calcul Intensif [BE]
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