Grounding line retreat of Totten Glacier, East Antarctica, 1996 to 2013

Totten Glacier, East Antarctica, a glacier that holds a 3.9 m sea level change equivalent, has thinned and lost mass for decades. We map its grounding line positions in 1996 and 2013 using differential radar interferometry (InSAR) data and develop precise, high‐resolution topographies of its ice sur...

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Veröffentlicht in:Geophysical research letters Jg. 42; H. 19; S. 8049 - 8056
Hauptverfasser: Li, Xin, Rignot, Eric, Morlighem, Mathieu, Mouginot, Jeremie, Scheuchl, Bernd
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: Washington Blackwell Publishing Ltd 16.10.2015
John Wiley & Sons, Inc
Schlagworte:
Antarctica
Asymmetry
Climate change
Conservation
Data
Glaciers
glaciology
Global warming
Grounding
grounding line
Ice
Instability
Interferometric synthetic aperture radar
Interferometry
Marine
Meteorology
NASA
Radar
Radar data
radar interferometry
radar sounding
remote sensing
Sea level
Sea level changes
Stability
Synthetic aperture radar interferometry
Thinning
Topography
Antarctica
PSW, Antarctica, West Antarctica
PSE, Antarctica, East Antarctica
ISSN:0094-8276, 1944-8007
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Zusammenfassung:Totten Glacier, East Antarctica, a glacier that holds a 3.9 m sea level change equivalent, has thinned and lost mass for decades. We map its grounding line positions in 1996 and 2013 using differential radar interferometry (InSAR) data and develop precise, high‐resolution topographies of its ice surface and ice draft using NASA Operation IceBridge data, InSAR data, and a mass conservation method. We detect a 1 to 3 km retreat of the grounding line in 17 years. The retreat is asymmetrical along a two‐lobe pattern, where ice is only grounded a few 10 m above sea level, or ice plain, which may unground further with only modest amounts of ice thinning. The pattern of retreat indicates ice thinning of 12 m in 17 years or 0.7±0.1 m/yr at the grounding line on average. Sustained thinning will cause further grounding line retreat but may not be conducive to a marine instability. Key Points Grounding line of Totten Glacier is retreating, not as fast as West Antarctica Retreat pattern explained by the newly inferred bed geometry If ice thinning maintains, bed geometry conducive to further retreat
Bibliographie:ark:/67375/WNG-BCN26DX8-S
European Space Agency
istex:096FEA7DC7E8C5CE248E7ACE799D16E4673D9833
Figures S1-S5, Table S1, and Text S1
German Aerospace Center (DLR) - No. XTI_GLAX0343
ArticleID:GRL53368
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007
DOI:10.1002/2015GL065701