Olga V. Sergienko

Challenges to understanding the dynamic response of Greenland's marine terminating glaciers to oceanic and atmospheric forcing

A working group on Greenland Ice Sheet-Ocean Interactions (GRISO), composed of representatives from the multiple disciplines involved, was established in January 2011 to develop strategies to address dynamic response of Greenlands glaciers to climate forcing. Critical aspects of Greenlands coupled ice sheet-ocean system are identified, and a research agenda is outlined that will yield fundamental insights into how the ice sheet and ocean interact, their role in Earths climate system, their regional and global effects, and probable trajectories of future changes. Key elements of the research agenda are focused process studies, sustained observational efforts at key sites, and inclusion of the relevant dynamics in Earth system models. Interdisciplinary and multiagency efforts, as well as international cooperation, are crucial to making progress on this novel and complex problem. This will prove as a significant step toward fulfilling the goal of credibly projecting sea level rise over the coming decades and century.

Regular Patterns in Frictional Resistance of Ice-Stream Beds Seen by Surface Data Inversion

Banding Together It is important to understand how and where the Antarctic Ice Sheet and underlying ground are coupled, if we want to predict the glacial contribution to sea level rise. Sergienko and Hindmarsh (p. 1086, published online 7 November) used observations of ice surface velocities, ice surface elevations, and bed elevations to perform inverse calculations of basal shear stress. Areas of high basal stress were distributed in riblike patterns embedded in much larger areas of no basal shear stress, which may affect the rates at which ice is discharged into the ocean. Sheer stress between the ice and the underlying bedrock of Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers is concentrated into bands. Fast-flowing glaciers and ice streams are pathways for ice discharge from the interior of the Antarctic Ice Sheet to ice shelves, at rates controlled by conditions at the ice-bed interface. Using recently compiled high-resolution data sets and a standard inverse method, we computed basal shear stress distributions beneath Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers, which are currently losing mass at an accelerating rate. The inversions reveal the presence of riblike patterns of very high basal shear stress embedded within much larger areas with zero basal shear stress. Their colocation with highs in the gradient of hydraulic potential suggests that subglacial water may control the evolution of these high–shear-stress ribs, potentially causing migration of the grounding line by changes in basal resistance in its vicinity.

'Sticky spots' and subglacial lakes under ice streams of the Siple Coast, Antarctica

Abstarct Locations of subglacial lakes discovered under fast-moving West Antarctic ice streams tend to be associated with topographic features of the subglacial bed or with areas that have strong variations in basal conditions. Inversion of ice-stream surface velocity indicates that basal conditions under ice streams can be highly variable and that there can be widespread regions where basal traction is high. To seek an explanation for why lakes appear to be sited near areas with high basal traction, we use numerical models to simulate ice-stream dynamics, thermodynamics and subglacial water flow. We demonstrate that the ice flow over high basal traction areas produces favourable conditions for the ponding of meltwater. Energy dissipation associated with ice sliding over a region with high basal traction constitutes a water source supplying a lake, and ice-thickness perturbations induced by ice flow over variable traction create local minima in hydraulic potential. Variations in thermodynamic processes caused by such ice flow could be responsible for limiting the horizontal extent of the subglacial lakes.

The flexural dynamics of melting ice shelves

Abstract A conspicuous precursor of catastrophic ice-shelf break-up along the Antarctic Peninsula, reported widely in the literature, is the gradual increase in surface melting and consequent proliferation of supraglacial lakes and dolines. Here we present analytical and numerical solutions for the flexure stresses within an ice shelf covered by lakes and dolines, both isolated and arrayed. We conclude that surface water promotes ice-shelf instability in two ways: (1) by water-assisted crevasse penetration, as previously noted, and (2) by the inducement of strong tensile flexure stresses (exceeding background spreading stress by 10–100 times) in response to surface water mass loads and ‘hydrostatic rebound’ occurring when meltwater lakes drain.

Iceberg-capsize tsunamigenesis

Abstract Calving from the floating termini of outlet glaciers and ice shelves is just the beginning of an interesting chain of events that can subsequently have important impacts on human life and property. Immediately after calving, many icebergs capsize (roll over by 90°) due to the instability of their initial geometry. As icebergs melt and respond to the cumulative effects of ocean swell, they can also reorient their mass distribution by further capsize and fragmentation. These processes release gravitational potential energy and can produce impulsive large-amplitude surface-gravity waves known as tsunamis (a term derived from the Japanese language). Iceberg-capsize tsunamis in Greenland fjords can be of sufficient amplitude to threaten human life and cause destruction of property in settlements. Iceberg-capsize tsunamis may also have a role in determining why some ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula disintegrate ‘explosively’ in response to general environmental warming. To quantify iceberg tsunami hazards we investigate iceberg-capsize energetics, and develop a rule relating tsunami height to iceberg thickness. This rule suggests that the open-water tsunami height (located far from the iceberg and from shorelines where the height can be amplified) has an upper limit of 0.01H where H is the initial vertical dimension of the iceberg.

Surface melting on Larsen Ice Shelf, Antarctica

Abstract The disintegration of Larsen A and B ice shelves in 1995 and 2002, respectively, was preceded by intense surface melting during the summer of ice-shelf collapse and previous summers. To understand the transition of the ice-shelf surface from dry to wet conditions, we developed a one-dimensional model, describing the mass, heat and force balances of water and firn within the ice-shelf surface layer. The model is run using atmospheric data from an automatic weather station on Larsen C ice shelf (World Meteorological Organization station ‘Larsen Ice Site’) located south of Larsen A and B. The model’s derived melting rate is greater than melting predicted by the positive degree-day (PDD) approach, common in studies of ablating ice sheets, such as Greenland. The model shows that the years of ice-shelf break-up (1995 and 2002) are distinguished from previous years by local maxima in the number of melting days. When the PDD approach is considered, however, a maximum in the number of positive degree-days appears in the 2002 break-up year, but not in 1995.

Stick-slip motion of an Antarctic Ice Stream: The effects of viscoelasticity

Stick-slip behavior is a distinguishing characteristic of the flow of Whillans Ice Stream (Siple Coast, Antarctica). Distinct from stick slip on Northern Hemisphere glaciers, which is generally attributed to supraglacial melt, the behavior is thought be controlled by basal processes and by tidally induced stress. However, the connection between stick-slip behavior and flow of the ice stream on long time scales, if any, is not clear. To address this question we develop a new ice flow model capable of reproducing stick-slip cycles similar to ones observed on the Whillans Ice Plain. The model treats ice as a viscoelastic material and emulates the weakening and healing that are suggested to take place at the ice-till interface. The model results suggest the long-term ice stream flow that controls ice discharge to surrounding oceans is somewhat insensitive to certain aspects of stick-slip behavior, such as velocity magnitude during the slip phase and factors that regulate it (e.g., elastic modulus). Furthermore, it is found that factors controlling purely viscous flow, such as temperature, influence stick-slip contribution to long-term flow in much the same way. Additionally, we show that viscous ice deformation, traditionally disregarded in analysis of stick-slip behavior, has a strong effect on the timing of slip events and therefore should not be ignored in efforts to deduce bed properties from stick-slip observations.

Reconstruction of snow/firn thermal diffusivities from observed temperature variation: application to iceberg C16, Ross Sea, Antarctica, 2004-07

Abstract. Two inverse methods are proposed as a means of estimating the thermal diffusivity of snow and firn from continuous measurements of their temperature. The first method is applicable to shallow depths where temperature experiences diurnal variations, and is based on the fact that phase and amplitude of these diurnal variations are functions of the thermal diffusivity. The second method is applicable to the deeper part of the firn layer, and is based on a simple least-squares estimation technique. The methods applied here differ from various methods used for borehole paleothermometry in that observations are continuous in time and performance constraints on model/data misfit can be applied over a finite temporal period. Both methods are tested on temperature records from thermistor strings operating in the upper 2.5 m of firn on iceberg C16 (Ross Sea, Antarctica) from 2004 to 2007. Results of the analysis show promise in identifying melting events and the movement and refreezing of meltwater within the snow/firn layer.

A vertically integrated treatment of ice stream and ice shelf thermodynamics

The extremely small vertical shear in ice stream and ice shelf flow simplifies the equations, which govern their thermodynamic evolution. Complemented by the widely used shallow shelf approximation used to simplify the ice flow momentum balance, a vertically integrated formulation of heat transfer presented here reduces the dimensionality of the thermodynamic problem from three to two (plan view) dimensions and thus significantly reduces the computational cost of treating ice stream and ice shelf thermodynamics in models. For realistic conditions, errors in ice stiffness parameter, ice thickness, and speed caused by the vertically integrated treatment of heat transfer are less than 5% of magnitudes of these values compared to the standard three-dimensional thermomechanical computations. In addition, for the specific case of ice shelves with strong bottom melting, the governing equation describing evolution of the vertically integrated ice stiffness parameter is derived, which further reduces computational cost. The presented error analysis and formulations of ice stream and ice shelf thermodynamics in terms of the vertically integrated temperature allow the thermodynamic effects on ice deformation to be easily incorporated into studies that traditionally disregard them.

International Workshop on Understanding the Responses of Greenland's Marine-Terminating Glaciers to Oceanic and Atmospheric Forcing: Challenges to improving observations, process understanding, and modeling

following an exceptionally early onset of melting and two months of anomalously high surface temperatures in the Arctic.