Mass Changes of Outlet Glaciers Along the Nordensjköld Coast, Northern
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
PUBLICATIONS Geophysical Research Letters RESEARCH LETTER Mass changes of outlet glaciers along the Nordensjköld 10.1002/2014GL061613 Coast, northern Antarctic Peninsula, based Key Points: on TanDEM-X satellite measurements • Volume change 2011–2013 of Antarctic Peninsula glaciers based Helmut Rott1,2, Dana Floricioiu3, Jan Wuite1, Stefan Scheiblauer1, Thomas Nagler1, and Michael Kern4 on new technique • Downwasting of most outlet glaciers 1ENVEO IT GmbH, Innsbruck, Austria, 2Institute for Meteorology and Geophysics, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria, ongoing 18 years afterLarsen-Acollapse 3 4 • Trend of decrease in ice mass losses Institute for Remote Sensing Technology, German Aerospace Center, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, ESA-ESTEC, due to deceleration of glacier flow Noordwijk, Netherlands. Supporting Information: Abstract We analyzed volume change and mass balance of outlet glaciers of the northern Antarctic • Readme • Text S1 Peninsula over the period 2011 to 2013, using topographic data of high vertical accuracy and great spatial detail, acquired by bistatic radar interferometry of the TanDEM-X/TerraSAR-X satellite formation. The study Correspondence to: area includes glaciers draining into the Larsen-A, Larsen Inlet, and Prince-Gustav-Channel embayments. After H. Rott, collapse of buttressing ice shelves in 1995 the glaciers became tidewater calving glaciers and accelerated, [email protected] resulting in increased ice export. Downwasting of most glaciers is going on, but at reduced rates compared to À previous years in accordance with deceleration of ice flow. The rate of mass depletion is 4.2 ± 0.4 Gt a 1, with Citation: À1 the largest contribution by Drygalski Glacier amounting to 2.2 ± 0.2 Gt a. On the technological side, the Rott,H.,D.Floricioiu,J.Wuite,S.Scheiblauer, T. Nagler, and M. Kern (2014), Mass investigations demonstrate the capability of satellite-borne single-pass radar interferometry as a new tool for changes of outlet glaciers along the accurate and detailed monitoring of glacier volume change. Nordensjköld Coast, northern Antarctic Peninsula, based on TanDEM-X satellite measurements, Geophys. Res. Lett., 41, 8123–8129, doi:10.1002/2014GL061613. 1. Introduction Received 20 AUG 2014 Disintegration events of the northern sections of Larsen Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula (API) in 1995 and Accepted 26 OCT 2014 2002 triggered near-immediate acceleration of the outlet glaciers previously feeding the ice shelves, Accepted article online 29 OCT 2014 resulting in major mass losses due to increased ice discharge [Rott et al., 2002; Scambos et al., 2004, 2011]. Published online 21 NOV 2014 À Sasgen et al. [2013] report a mass balance of À26 ± 3 Gt a 1 for the northern API for January 2003 to September 2012, derived from measurements of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment. Shepherd et al. [2012] present mass balance estimates for the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet based on satellite altimetry, gravimetry, and the input/output method. They report a reconciled mass balance estimate for À API of À36 ± 10 Gt a 1 for the period 2005 to 2010. Precise data on volume changes and their temporal trends are essential for assessing the response of the glaciers to changing boundary conditions, identifying processes controlling ice flux, and estimating their current and future contributions to sea level rise [Barrand et al., 2013]. We are interested in spatially detailed observations of volume change and mass balance of glaciers north of the Seal Nunataks where Larsen-A Ice Shelf disintegrated in January 1995 [Rott et al., 1996] (Figure 1). In contrast to Larsen-B Ice Shelf and its tributary glaciers, little attention has been paid to this area, in spite of the fact that the ice shelf disintegrated already 7 years earlier. A detailed analysis of volume change and mass balance of glaciers on the northern Antarctic Peninsula has been performed by Scambos et al. [2014] using a combination of digital elevation model (DEM) differencing and repeat-track laser altimetry from the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat). The DEMs difference pairs, based on stereo images of optical satellite sensors, span 2001–2006, 2003–2008, and 2004–2010 for different sections of the study area, and are integrated with ICESat data spanning September 2003 to March 2008. This is an open access article under the We are focusing at API outlet glaciers along the Nordenskjöld Coast which extends along the east coast of the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs API between Cape Longing (Figure 1) and Cape Fairweather, located about 40 km south of the Drygalski License, which permits use and distri- Glacier front. In addition, our analysis includes Sjögren-Boydell glaciers, the main API outlet glaciers to bution in any medium, provided the Prince-Gustav-Channel. Surface elevation change is mapped over a time span of about 2 years, extending original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications from southern winter 2011 to winter 2013. We use topographic data acquired by a new technique, bistatic or adaptations are made. radar interferometry of the TanDEM-X/TerraSAR-X satellite formation [Krieger et al., 2013]. ROTT ET AL. ©2014. The Authors. 8123 Geophysical Research Letters 10.1002/2014GL061613 2. Data Base and Methods We apply DEM differencing for retrieving changes in glacier volume and estimating glacier mass balance [Cogley, 2009], using precise, spatially detailed data of surface topography measured by the TanDEM-X (TerraSAR-X add-on for Digital Elevation Measurements) mission. For converting volume change into mass change we use an average density of À 900 kg m 3 (section 2.2 in Text S1 in the supporting information). TanDEM-X employs a bistatic interferometric configuration of the two satellites TerraSAR-X (TSX) and TanDEM-X (TDX) flying in close formation [Krieger et al., 2013]. The satellites form together a single-pass synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometer, enabling the acquisition of highly accurate cross- track interferograms that are not affected by temporal decorrelation and variations in atmospheric delay. The primary objective of the mission is the generation of a global high-resolution DEM [Krieger et al., 2013; Rizzoli et al., 2012]. Our analysis of elevation change is based on DEMs derived from TSX-TDX interferograms acquired in 2011 and 2013, separated by a time span of about 2 years. We generated DEMs with 6 m × 6 m grid size from SAR data with a spatial resolution of about 3 m along track and 1.2 m in radar line of À Figure 1. Rate of glacier surface elevation change dh/dt (m a 1) 2011 to sight [Rossi et al., 2012]. The study area 2013 on outlet glaciers along the Nordenskjöld Coast, Antarctic Peninsula. is covered by four separate DEMs, each 1 to 8: basin number. Landmarks: PGC–Prince-Gustav Channel; CL–Cape extending over an area of about Longing; LI–Larsen Inlet; L-A–Larsen-A embayment; CW–Cape Worsley; 30 km × 50 km (Table S1 and Figures S1 – SN Seal Nunatak ice shelf. Background: Landsat image of 31 December and S2 in the supporting information). 2001. Yellow line: coastline November 1995. Red line: coastline on 12 January 2012. Straight white lines: transects on Drygalski (D) and Edgeworth We produced maps of glacier surface (E) glaciers (shown in Figure 3). elevation change (dh/dt)by differencing the DEMs of 2013 with the corresponding 2011 DEMs (Figure 1). For analysis of elevation change, accurate relative vertical registration is crucial. This has been achieved by fine adjusting each of the four 2013 DEMs vertically to the corresponding 2011 DEM at sea level, compensating for the difference in tide level. The accuracy of the vertical registration has been checked at outcrops (nunataks) within the glacier basins (section 2 in Text S1 in the supporting information). A critical issue for producing DEMs by means of across-track SAR interferometry is the 2π phase ambiguity arising from the periodicity of the phase difference between the two SAR images [Rosen et al., 2000]. A phase ROTT ET AL. ©2014. The Authors. 8124 Geophysical Research Letters 10.1002/2014GL061613 À Figure 2. Rate of glacier surface elevation change dh/dt (in m a 1) 2011 to 2013 versus altitude in 50 m intervals (referring to WGS-84) for basins 2 to 7. Green line: hypsometry of analyzed glacier area in km2. shift of 2π corresponds to a discrete height difference called the height of ambiguity, Ha. The Ha values of our data set range from 34.2 m to 92.5 m for the different DEMs. 2π phase ambiguities, resulting in elevation shifts corresponding to Ha, are evident in individual DEMs on some steep slopes, in particular along the escarpment separating the glacier tongues from the plateau of the main API ice divide. Therefore, we constrain the analysis of elevation change to the glacier areas below the escarpment, excluding areas above 1200 m. We checked for phase ambiguities by comparing the TDX DEM repeat pass pairs with each other and with the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer-based Antarctic Peninsula DEM (API-DEM) of Cook et al. [2012]. Areas affected by phase ambiguities are masked out, resulting for each glacier in a contiguous mask for mapping elevation change. Gaps arising from omission of these areas are filled by means of the API-DEM, using the TDX derived dh/dt values in dependence of altitude (Figure 2). The error analysis, taking into account errors in TDX DEM differencing and extrapolation to missing areas, yields À À uncertainties in elevation change (dh/dt) between ±0.29 m a 1 and ±0.36 m a 1 for the various basins (section 2 in Text S1 in the supporting information). For supporting the discussion on temporal changes of glacier behavior we mapped glacier velocities (Figure S3 in the supporting information).