Extent of low accumulation 'wind glaze' areas on the East Antarctic plateau: implications for continental ice mass balance
| Autor: | Ted Scambos, Kenneth C. Jezek, Mary R. Albert, Jan-Gunnar Winther, Jennifer Bohlander, David G. Long, Thomas Neumann, M. R. van den Broeke, Terry Haran, K. Farness, Stefano Urbini, Jan T. M. Lenaerts, Massimo Frezzotti |
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| Přispěvatelé: | Scambos, T. A., Frezzotti, M., Haran, T., Bohlander, J., Lenaerts, J. T. M., Van Den Broeke, M. R., Jezek, K., Long, D., Urbini, S., Farness, K., Neumann, T., Albert, M., Winther, J. -G. |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Předmět: |
010506 paleontology
geography Katabatic wind geography.geographical_feature_category Plateau 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Glaze Elevation Antarctic ice sheet Atmospheric sciences 01 natural sciences Glacier mass balance 13. Climate action Climatology Ice sheet Digital elevation model Geology 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Earth-Surface Processes |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Glaciology Journal of Glaciology, 58(210), 633. Cambridge University Press [etc.] |
| ISSN: | 0022-1430 |
| DOI: | 10.3189/2012jog11j232 |
| Popis: | Persistent katabatic winds form widely distributed localized areas of near-zero net surface accumulation on the East Antarctic ice sheet (EAIS) plateau. These areas have been called 'glaze' surfaces due to their polished appearance. They are typically 2-200 km2 in area and are found on leeward slopes of ice-sheet undulations and megadunes. Adjacent, leeward high-accumulation regions (isolated dunes) are generally smaller and do not compensate for the local low in surface mass balance (SMB). We use a combination of satellite remote sensing and field-gathered datasets to map the extent of wind glaze in the EAIS above 1500 m elevation. Mapping criteria are derived from distinctive surface and subsurface characteristics of glaze areas resulting from many years of intense annual temperature cycling without significant burial. Our results show that 11.2 ± 1.7%, or 950 ± 143 × 103km2, of the EAIS above 1500 m is wind glaze. Studies of SMB interpolate values across glaze regions, leading to overestimates of net mass input. Using our derived wind-glaze extent, we estimate this excess in three recent models of Antarctic SMB at 46-82 Gt. The lowest-input model appears to best match the mean in regions of extensive wind glaze. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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