Abstract
Measuring basal melting of ice shelves is challenging and represents a critical component toward understanding ocean-ice interactions and climate change. In November 2011, moorings containing fiber-optic cables for distributed temperature sensing (DTS) were installed through the McMurdo Ice Shelf, Antarctica, (~200 m) and extending ~600 m into the ice shelf cavity. The high spatial resolution of DTS allows for transient monitoring of the thermal gradient within the ice shelf. The gradient near the ice-ocean interface is extrapolated to the in situ freezing temperature in order to continuously track the ice-ocean interface. Seasonal melt rates are calculated to be ~1.0 mm d-1 and 8.6 mm d-1, and maximum melting corresponds to the arrival of seasonal warm surface water in the ice shelf cavity between January and April. The development of continuous, surface-based techniques for measuring basal melting represents a significant advance in monitoring ice shelf stability and ice-ocean interactions.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 6779-6786 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Geophysical Research Letters |
Volume | 41 |
Issue number | 19 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 16 2014 |
Keywords
- Antarctic
- basal melting
- distributed temperature sensing
- glaciology
- ice shelves
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Geophysics
- General Earth and Planetary Sciences