Ice-shelf melting around Antarctica
Data files
Mar 25, 2025 version files 501.99 MB
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Ant_MeltingRate.v2.nc
501.99 MB
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README.md
1.17 KB
Abstract
We compare the volume flux divergence of Antarctic ice shelves in 2007 and 2008 with 1979 to 2010 surface accumulation and 2003 to 2008 thinning to determine their rates of melting and mass balance. Basal melt of 1325 ± 235 gigatons per year (Gt/year) exceeds a calving flux of 1089 ± 139 Gt/year, making ice-shelf melting the largest ablation process in Antarctica. The giant cold-cavity Ross, Filchner, and Ronne ice shelves covering two-thirds of the total ice-shelf area account for only 15% of net melting. Half of the meltwater comes from 10 small, warm-cavity Southeast Pacific ice shelves occupying 8% of the area. A similar high melt/area ratio is found for six East Antarctic ice shelves, implying undocumented strong ocean thermal forcing on their deep grounding lines.
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5hqbzkhg2
Description of the data and file structure
File: Ant_MeltingRate.v2.nc
Ice-Shelf Melting Around Antarctica
The file is a netcdf file in Polar Stereographic format, with a coordinate reference system (CRS) EPSG:3031, 5,000 meters posting, 5601 columns x 5601 rows, origin at -2,800,000 meters, +2,800,000 meters.
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lat: Latitude of grid points in degrees, 2d array, floating point, from -90 to -54.7 deg.
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lon: Longitude of grid points in degrees, 2d array, floating point, from 0 to 360 degrees.
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melt_actual: Actual melt rate B in meters per year, 2d array, floating point, from -10.44724 to +158.4632 m/yr
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melt_steadystate: Steady state (no thickening) melt rate B in meters per year, 2d array, floating point, from -9.025163 to +152.8616 m/yr
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xaxis: x values of grid in meters, 1d array, floating point, from -2,800,000 meters, +2,800,000 meters.
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yaxis: y values of grid in meters, 1d array, floating point, from -2,800,000 meters, +2,800,000 meters.
Code/software
NA
Access information
NA
1. Ice shelf thickness
Ice thickness is from BEDMAP-2 (1) and NASA Operation IceBridge (OIB) (18-19), which are available, respectively, at www.antarctica.ac.uk › Projects AZ › Bedmap2 and at the National Snow and Ice Data Center nsidc.org/data/icebridge/ data_summaries.html. BEDMAP-2 merges measurements of ice thickness from airborne radio echo sounding with estimates derived from radar-altimetry observations of surface elevation from 1994 (20). The altimetry product uses the most inland grounding line positions from InSAR (21), MOA (36), or ASAID (37) to minimize the omission of floating sectors. Ice thickness may be erroneously high where ice is not in hydrostatic equilibrium, e.g., in a transition region. Along most glaciers, MOA and ASAID grounding lines (GL) have lateral errors up to 50 km (21), which impact the calculation of ice thickness, volume flux, and basal melt rate. Here, we only rely on a systematic, precise mapping of GL with InSAR (available at nsidc.org/data/docs/measures/ nsidc0498_rignot/), and minimize the risk of including grounded ice sectors.
Special cases: As GL ice thickness is not well known on Larsen D-G, we use balance discharge from RACMO2 for the GL flux. At the GL of Larsen C, Rayner/Thyer, Edward VIII, and the thickest parts of Shackleton (Denman Glacier) and Moscow University Ice Shelves, ice thickness assumes hydrostatic equilibrium. For Larsen B, we use ice velocity from 2000 and ice-shelf thickness from 1994, pre-dating its 2002 collapse. For the GL of Ross East, Nansen, Aviator, Mariner, Ninnis, Mertz, Dibble, Holmes, Totten, Wilma/Robert/Downer, Rayner/Thyer and Shirase in East Antarctica (EAIS), and Land, Nickerson, Sulzberger and Swinburne in West Antarctica (WAIS), we use (20); for David Glacier, we use OIB. For ice-front fluxes, we use BEDMAP-2, except for Rayner/Thyer, where ice thickness uses hydrostatic equilibrium.
2. Ice shelf velocity
Ice-shelf vector velocity data are from a mosaic of InSAR data from six sensors (22). Flow speeds are highest along the coast and on ice shelves. The error in speed is lowest in fast-moving areas mapped with multiple sensors and highest in slow-moving areas mapped using only Advanced Land Observing System (ALOS) Polarimetric Advanced L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) data. The average errors in flow speed and direction are, respectively, 4 m/yr and 1.7. The velocity data are available online at nsidc.org/data/docs/measures/nsidc0484_rignot.
3. Drainage boundaries
Drainage boundaries on continental ice are traditionally drawn using a digital elevation model of the ice sheet, assuming steady-state ice flow along the lines of steepest surface slope. This approach is not reliable on ice shelves due to their small surface slope. We use flow vector direction to delineate drainage boundaries between adjacent ice shelves. This approach helps to differentiate the ice flow into the Filchner Ice Shelf (East Antarctica Ice Sheet (EAIS)) from Academy Glacier versus ice flow into the Ronne Ice Shelf (West Antarctica Ice Sheet (WAIS)) from the Foundation Ice Stream. We also separate ice flow into Ross West (WAIS) versus Ross East (EAIS) and ice flow into Brunt-Stancomb versus Riiser-Larsen ice shelves. The transition between EAIS and WAIS is thus defined at the boundaries between Foundation Ice Stream and Academy Glacier in the Weddell Sea sector, and Mercer Ice Stream and Scott Glacier in the Ross Sea sector.
4. Ice-front positions
We identify ice-front positions in a radar mosaic of ALOS PALSAR data for the years 2007-2008 at a 150-m posting. The results are compared for consistency and quality control with MOA 2009, updated from (36). As an ice front migrates with ice flow and calving events, an exact agreement is not expected, but the comparison helps identify and resolve discrepancies. In the case of broken ice shelves, where icebergs are partially detached and glued together with an ice mélange of iceberg debris, sea ice, and blown snow, ice front delineation uses clues from both radar and visible imagery.
The 2007-2008 ice-front positions do not coincide with the boundaries of BEDMAP-2 because the data sets are from slightly different time periods. As a result, our ice front flux gates are slightly upstream of the 2007-2008 ice front positions. The area in-between the ice-front flux gates and the actual ice front positions is 2% of the total ice shelf area.
For ice walls and smaller ice shelves excluded from our survey, we assume a 50/50 partitioning between calving and basal melt to balance the incoming flux, as in the case of tidewater glaciers (39-40).
5. Ice shelf areas, rises, and islands
Inflow from ice rises and ice islands along the ice shelf perimeter is included in the GL flux. Ice rises, rumples, and islands within the ice shelf perimeters are included in the SMB input but excluded from the ice shelf area used to calculate total meltwater production.
6. Grounding line fluxes
We have compared our GL fluxes with the balance fluxes calculated using RACMO2 (16). GL fluxes are within error bars of the balance fluxes except in a few areas known to be thinning rapidly (23). This verification provides an evaluation of the quality of the thickness data at the grounding line and helps justify the selection of alternative ice thickness estimates, as per the discussion in section 1, “Special cases”.
7. Surface mass balance (SMB)
We employ SMB products from the University of Utrecht’s Regional Atmospheric Climate Model (RACMO2) validated with in-situ data (16). An error rate has been quantified for each basin based on error propagation (17). We use an average SMB for the time period 1979-2010 to obtain a long-term average SMB. Employing SMB values for 2007-2008, the time period of velocity mapping, would introduce significant noise and assume that ice shelf velocities respond instantaneously to annual fluctuations in snow input.
8. Basal melt rates
The actual basal melt rate, B, in meters per year is deduced from the equation of mass conservation (15): ∂H/∂t = SMB – B - ∇ (H v), where H is the ice thickness, v is the ice velocity vector, SMB the surface mass balance, and ∂H/∂t the rate of ice shelf thickening (positive for ice shelf growth).
To take into account the spatial resolution of the thickness data, we calculate the derivative terms of the mass conservation equation with a 10-km baseline, and the final melt rate map is smoothed with a 10-km filter. As a result, we miss points along the ice shelf perimeters when mapping the freeze/melt distribution; but this does not affect the estimation of area-average melt rates, B, expressed in Gt/yr, because that calculation is based on the total inflow and outflow within the ice shelf perimeters, not the integration of point values.
We also calculate melt rates Bss for ∂H/∂t = 0, i.e., the amount of freezing and melting that would be required to maintain the ice shelves in a steady state of velocity and thickness in 2007-2008. For this calculation, we still use velocity data for 2007-2008. In reality, some of these glaciers have been accelerating in recent decades, e.g., several glaciers draining into the Amundsen Sea. For these glaciers, it would have been preferable to use ice velocities from an earlier time period, e.g., 1975, when the system seemed closer to steady state. As we do not have complete velocity and thickness data for that time period, we focus instead on the most complete data set.
The spatial pattern of the melt rate B appears noisy on some ice shelves, in particular on Brunt-Stancomb or Ross. Part of this signal is real and associated with rifts, cracks, and vertical undulations in surface elevation present on those shelves. Part of the signal is caused by the time difference between ice thickness and ice velocity data and the advection of heterogeneities in ice thickness along flow. Furthermore, basal melting is expected to be non-uniform across such zones, with melting dominant along the rift sides and freezing dominant at the rift center.
We first calculate the basal melt rates in meters per year over the surveyed areas from the GL flux, ice front flux, SMB, and ∂H/∂t. The result is then applied to the actual ice shelf area to deduce the total ice shelf meltwater production. We then re-calculate SMB and ∂H/∂t over the actual ice shelf areas instead of the surveyed area; the grounding line fluxes are unchanged because surveyed and actual areas share identical GL positions. The ice front fluxes are, however, corrected for the adjustment in SMB and ∂H/∂t to ensure closure of the mass balance equation. This correction amounts to 30 Gt/yr, i.e., < 3% of the total ice front flux, which covers 99.5% of the Antarctic ice shelf area.
9. Adjustments for ice shelf thickening
Ice shelf thickening ∂H/∂t is derived using corrected ICESat-1 altimetry data for the period 2003-2008, and surface mass balance and firn correction data posted at dx.doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.775984. The analysis follows the method in (23). Firn depth corrections provided for 100 ice shelves are interpolated to all ice shelves using inverse distance weighting. The results are combined with the flux divergence and SMB data to calculate the melt rate B. The uncertainty in ice shelf thickening is from (23). Our results are consistent with (23).
Early in 2013, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported an error of omission in the processing of ICESat data that introduces a 5-10 cm error on a pulse-by-pulse basis. Application of inter-campaign corrections and averaging over the entire time period 2003-2008 reduces the impact of this correction, which should not affect the results of this study.
We have no estimates of ice shelf thickening for a few ice shelves. For Wordie and Ferrigno, we use the rates for the adjacent Wilkins and Venable shelves, respectively. Zero thickening is assumed for Lillie, Wilma/Robert/Downer, Rayner/Thyer, Edward VIII, and Shirase in East Antarctica. Ice shelf thickening for Larsen B is based on measurements collected over the remnant part of the ice shelf.
We verified that if we calculate the sum of all ice shelf melt values over an ice shelf and compare that total with the difference between the incoming ice flux minus the outgoing calving flux plus the net surface balance, minus the net change in ice thickness, we find the same total net mass loss. In effect, our estimates conserve mass.
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