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Mass budgets of the Lambert, Mellor and Fisher Glaciers and basal fluxes beneath their flowbands on Amery Ice Shelf

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Abstract

We used in situ measurements and remote-sensing data sets to evaluate the mass budgets of the Lambert, Mellor and Fisher Glaciers and the basal melting and freezing rates beneath their flowbands on the Amery Ice Shelf. Our findings show the Lambert and Mellor Glaciers upstream of the ANARE Lambert Glacier Basin (LGB) traverse may have positive imbalances of 3.9±2.1 Gt a−1 and 2.1±2.4 Gt a−1, respectively, while the Fisher Glacier is approximately in balance. The upstream region as a whole has a positive imbalance of 5.9±4.9 Gt a−1. The three same glaciers downstream of the ANARE LGB traverse line are in negative imbalance, where the whole downstream region has a negative imbalance of −8.5±5.8 Gt a−1. Overall the mass budgets of the Lambert, Mellor, and Fisher Glaciers are close to balance, and the collective three-glacier system is also nearly in balance with a mass budget of −2.6±6.5 Gt a−1. The significant positive imbalances for the interior basin upstream of the ice-movement stations established in the early 1970s (GL line) reported previously are possibly due to an overestimate of the total accumulation and an underestimate of the ice flux through the GL line.

The mean melting rate is −23.0±3.5 m ice a−1 near the southern grounding line, which decreases rapidly downstream, and transitions to refreezing at around 300 km from the southern extremity of the Amery Ice Shelf. Freezing rates along the flowbands are around 0.5±0.1 to 1.5±0.2 m ice a−1. The percentage of ice lost from the interior by basal melting beneath the flowbands is about 80%±5%. The total basal melting and refreezing beneath the three flowbands is 50.3±7.5 Gt ice a−1 and 7.0±1.1 Gt ice a−1, respectively. We find a much larger total basal melting and net melting than the results for the whole Amery Ice Shelf derived from previous modeling and oceanographic measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, 200234, China

    Wen JiaHong

  2. Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Wen JiaHong, Kenneth C. Jezek, Beata M. Csathó & Katy L. Farness

  3. CIRES/NSIDC, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, 80309-0449, USA

    Ute C. Herzfeld

  4. Departement Geografie, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Philippe Huybrechts

  5. Alfred-Wegener-Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Postfach 120161, D-27515, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Philippe Huybrechts

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Correspondence to Wen JiaHong.

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Sponsored by the NASA’s Polar Oceans and Ice Sheets Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40471028, 40231013 and 40476005), and the Shu Guang Project supported by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and Shanghai Education Development Foundation (Grant No. 05SG46)

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Wen, J., Jezek, K.C., Csathó, B.M. et al. Mass budgets of the Lambert, Mellor and Fisher Glaciers and basal fluxes beneath their flowbands on Amery Ice Shelf. SCI CHINA SER D 50, 1693–1706 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-007-0120-y

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