Radio-echo sounding of the Antarctic and Greenlandic ice sheets often reveals a layer in the lowest hundreds of meters above bedrock more or less free of radio echoes, known as the echo-free zone ...(EFZ). The cause of this feature is unclear, so far lacking direct evidence for its origin. We compare echoes around the EPICA drill site in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, with the dielectric properties, crystal orientation fabrics and optical stratigraphy of the EPICA-DML ice core. We find that echoes disappear in the depth range where the dielectric contrast is blurred, and where the coherency of the layers in the ice core is lost due to disturbances caused by the ice flow. At the drill site, the EFZ onset at ~2100 m marks a boundary, below which the ice core may have experienced flow induced disturbances on various scales. The onset may indicate changing rheology which needs to be accounted for in the modeling of ice sheet dynamics.
A nested ice flow model was developed for eastern Dronning Maud Land to assist with the dating and interpretation of the EDML deep ice core. The model consists of a high-resolution higher-order ice ...dynamic flow model that was nested into a comprehensive 3-D thermomechanical model of the whole Antarctic ice sheet. As the drill site is on a flank position the calculations specifically take into account the effects of horizontal advection as deeper ice in the core originated from higher inland. First the regional velocity field and ice sheet geometry is obtained from a forward experiment over the last 8 glacial cycles. The result is subsequently employed in a Lagrangian backtracing algorithm to provide particle paths back to their time and place of deposition. The procedure directly yields the depth-age distribution, surface conditions at particle origin, and a suite of relevant parameters such as initial annual layer thickness. This paper discusses the method and the main results of the experiment, including the ice core chronology, the non-climatic corrections needed to extract the climatic part of the signal, and the thinning function. The focus is on the upper 89% of the ice core (appr. 170 kyears) as the dating below that is increasingly less robust owing to the unknown value of the geothermal heat flux. It is found that the temperature biases resulting from variations of surface elevation are up to half of the magnitude of the climatic changes themselves.
The development of models of marine ecosystems in the Southern Ocean is becoming increasingly important as a means of understanding and managing impacts such as exploitation and climate change. ...Collating data from disparate sources, and understanding biases or uncertainties inherent in those data, are important first steps for improving ecosystem models. This review focuses on seals that breed in ice habitats of the Southern Ocean (i.e. crabeater seal, Lobodon carcinophaga; Ross seal, Ommatophoca rossii; leopard seal, Hydrurga leptonyx; and Weddell seal, Leptonychotes weddellii). Data on populations (abundance and trends in abundance), distribution and habitat use (movement, key habitat and environmental features) and foraging (diet) are summarised, and potential biases and uncertainties inherent in those data are identified and discussed. Spatial and temporal gaps in knowledge of the populations, habitats and diet of each species are also identified.
As part of the CryoSat Cal/Val activities and the pre-site survey for an ice core drilling contributing to the International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS), ground-based kinematic GPS ...measurements were conducted in early 2007 in the hinterland of the German overwintering station Neumayer (8.25
∘ W,70.65
∘ S). The investigated area comprises the regions of the ice ridges Halvfarryggen and Søråsen, which rise from the Ekströmisen to a maximum of about 760 m surface elevation, and have an areal extent of about 100 km×50 km each. Available digital elevation models (DEMs) from radar altimetry and the Antarctic Digital Database show elevation differences of up to hundreds of meters in this region, which necessitated an accurate survey of the conditions on-site. An improved DEM of the Ekströmisen surroundings is derived by a combination of highly accurate ground-based GPS measurements, satellite derived laser altimetry data (ICESat), airborne radar altimetry (ARA), and radio echo sounding (RES). The DEM presented here achieves a vertical accuracy of about 1.3 m and can be used for improved ice dynamic modelling and mass balance studies.
The Dome Fuji (DF) region in Antarctica is a potential site for an ice core with a record of over 1 Myr. Here, we combine large-scale internal airborne radar stratigraphy with a 1-D model to estimate ...the age of basal ice in the DF region. The radar data used in the study were collected in a survey during the 2016–2017 Antarctic season. We transfer the latest age–depth scales from the DF ice core to isochrones traced in radargrams in the surrounding 500 km × 550 km region. At each point of the survey the 1-D model uses the ages of isochrones to construct the age–depth scale at depths where dated isochrones do not exist, the surface accumulation rate and the basal thermal condition, including melt rate and the thickness of stagnant ice. Our resulting age distribution and age density suggest that several promising sites with ice older than 1.5 Myr in the DF region might exist. The deduced melt rates and presence of stagnant ice provide more constraints for locating sites with a cold base. The accumulation rates range from 0.015 to 0.038 m a−1 ice equivalent. Based on sensitivity studies we find that the number and depth of picked isochrones and the timescale of the ice core severely affect the model results. Our study demonstrates that constraints from deep radar isochrones and a trustworthy timescale could improve the model estimation to find old ice in the DF region.
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.
The area near Dome C, East Antarctica, is thought to be one of the most promising targets for recovering a continuous ice-core record spanning more than a million years. The European Beyond EPICA ...consortium has selected Little Dome C (LDC), an area ∼ 35 km southeast of Concordia Station, to attempt to recover such a record. Here, we present the results of the final ice-penetrating radar survey used to refine the exact drill site. These data were acquired during the 2019–2020 austral summer using a new, multi-channel high-resolution very high frequency (VHF) radar operating in the frequency range of 170–230 MHz. This new instrument is able to detect reflectors in the near-basal region, where previous surveys were largely unable to detect horizons. The radar stratigraphy is used to transfer the timescale of the EPICA Dome C ice core (EDC) to the area of Little Dome C, using radar isochrones dating back past 600 ka. We use these data to derive the expected depth–age relationship through the ice column at the now-chosen drill site, termed BELDC (Beyond EPICA LDC). These new data indicate that the ice at BELDC is considerably older than that at EDC at the same depth and that there is about 375 m of ice older than 600 kyr at BELDC. Stratigraphy is well preserved to 2565 m, ∼ 93 % of the ice thickness, below which there is a basal unit with unknown properties. An ice-flow model tuned to the isochrones suggests ages likely reach 1.5 Myr near 2500 m, ∼ 65 m above the basal unit and ∼ 265 m above the bed, with sufficient resolution (19 ± 2 kyr m−1) to resolve 41 kyr glacial cycles.
The East Antarctic Ice Sheet contains a wealth of information that can be extracted from its internal architecture such as distribution of age, past flow features, and surface and basal properties. ...Airborne radar surveys can sample this stratigraphic
archive across broad areas. Here, we identify and trace key horizons across several radar surveys to obtain the stratigraphic information.
We transfer the age–depth scales from ice cores to intersecting radar data. We then propagate these age scales across the ice sheet using the high fidelity continuity of the radar horizons.
In Dronning Maud Land, including Dome Fuji, we mapped isochrones with ages of 38 and 74 ka. In the central region of East Antarctica around Dome Concordia, Vostok
and Dome Argus, we use isochrone ages of 38, 48, 90 and 161 ka.
Taking together both regions, we provide isochrone depths traced along a combined profile length of more than 40 000 km and discuss uncertainties of the obtained stratigraphy, as well as factors important to consider for further expansion.
This data set is the most extensive distribution of internal horizons in East Antarctica to date. The isochrone depths presented in this study are available on PANGAEA (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.895528; Winter et al., 2018).
We present a high-resolution airborne radar data set (EGRIP-NOR-2018) for the onset region of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS). The radar data were acquired in May 2018 with the Alfred ...Wegener Institute's multichannel ultra-wideband (UWB) radar mounted on the Polar 6 aircraft. Radar profiles cover an area of ∼24 000 km2 and extend over the well-defined shear margins of the NEGIS. The survey area is centered at the location of the drill site of the East Greenland Ice-Core Project (EastGRIP), and several radar lines intersect at this location. The survey layout was designed to (i) map the stratigraphic signature of the shear margins with radar profiles aligned perpendicular to ice flow, (ii) trace the radar stratigraphy along several flow lines, and (iii) provide spatial coverage of ice thickness and basal properties. While we are able to resolve radar reflections in the deep stratigraphy, we cannot fully resolve the steeply inclined reflections at the tightly folded shear margins in the lower part of the ice column. The NEGIS is causing the most significant discrepancies between numerically modeled and observed ice surface velocities. Given the high likelihood of future climate and ocean warming, this extensive data set of new high-resolution radar data in combination with the EastGRIP ice core will be a key contribution to understand the past and future dynamics of the NEGIS. The EGRIP-NOR-2018 radar data products can be obtained from the PANGAEA data publisher (https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.928569; Franke et al., 2021a).
The European Beyond EPICA project aims to extract a continuous ice core of up to 1.5 Ma, with a maximum age density of 20 kyr m−1 at Little Dome C (LDC). We present a 1D numerical model which ...calculates the age of the ice around Dome C. The model inverts for basal conditions and accounts either for melting or for a layer of stagnant ice above the bedrock. It is constrained by internal reflecting horizons traced in radargrams and dated using the EPICA Dome C (EDC) ice core age profile. We used three different radar datasets ranging from a 10 000 km2 airborne survey down to 5 km long ground-based radar transects over LDC. We find that stagnant ice exists in many places, including above the LDC relief where the new Beyond EPICA drill site (BELDC) is located. The modelled thickness of this layer of stagnant ice roughly corresponds to the thickness of the basal unit observed in one of the radar surveys and in the autonomous phase-sensitive radio-echo sounder (ApRES) dataset. At BELDC, the modelled stagnant ice thickness is 198±44 m and the modelled oldest age of ice is 1.45±0.16 Ma at a depth of 2494±30 m. This is very similar to all sites situated on the LDC relief, including that of the Million Year Ice Core project being conducted by the Australian Antarctic Division. The model was also applied to radar data in the area 10–15 km north of EDC (North Patch), where we find either a thin layer of stagnant ice (generally <60 m) or a negligible melt rate (<0.1 mm yr−1). The modelled maximum age at North Patch is over 2 Ma in most places, with ice at 1.5 Ma having a resolution of 9–12 kyr m−1, making it an exciting prospect for a future Oldest Ice drill site.
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