ice shelf flexure and tidal forcing of bindschadler ice stream west antarctica abstract viscoelastic models of ice shelf flexure and ice stream velocity perturbations are combined into a single efficient flowline model to study tidal forcing of grounded ice the magnitude and timing of ice stream response to tidally driven changes in hydrostatic pressure and or basal drag are found to depend significantly on bed rheology with only a perfectly plastic bed allowing instantaneous velocity response at the grounding line the model can reasonably reproduce gps observations near the grounding zone of bindschadler ice stream formerly ice stream d on semidiurnal time scales however other forcings such as tidally driven ice shelf slope transverse to the flowline and flexurally driven till deformation must also be considered if diurnal motion is to be matched

modis based mosaic of antarctica moa data sets continent wide surface morphology and snow grain size abstract we present digital image mosaics of surface morphology and optical snow grain size for the antarctic continent and surrounding islands assembled from 260 moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer modis images the products are derived from modis band 1 red light 647 nm and band 2 infrared 857 nm orbit swath data acquired during the 2003 2004 austral summer multiple images of all areas are combined in a data cumulation scheme to improve spatial resolution and increase radiometric content of the mosaics the component images were de striped geo registered and re sampled to the projection grid using the modis swath to grid toolbox ms2gt software a 125 m ground equivalent polar stereographic projection was used identical to previous radar image mosaics and similar to several other continent wide data sets geo location accuracy of the final mosaics is better than 125 m swath acquisition times were limited to the range 05 00 13 30 ut to provide broad but uniform mosaic illumination regions of cloud cover blowing snow and intense forward scattering were masked prior to compositing the moa snow grain size data set image provides the first continent wide semi quantitative map of mean summer snow firn and blue ice grain size optical grain size radius was determined using a normalized difference index derived from modis band 1 and band 2 rad values atmospheric correction adjustments for directional reflectance variation and snow grain size estimation were accomplished by a look up table generated by a combination of published models of snow spectral reflectance and atmosphere radiative transfer validation of the snow grain size image is provided by in situ spectra of snow covered sea ice made in october 2003 we use the new data sets to determine major ice shelf areas and shelf edge coastline and ice grounding line vector files and determine areas of selected blue ice regions these data sets are available for download at http nsidc org data moa

fast recession of a west antarctic glacier satellite radar interferometry observations of pine island glacier west antarctica reveal that the glacier hinge line position retreated 1 2 0 3 kilometers per year between 1992 and 1996 which in turn implies that the ice thinned by 3 5 0 9 meters per year the fast recession of pine island glacier predicted to be a possible trigger for the disintegration of the west antarctic ice sheet is attributed to enhanced basal melting of the glacier floating tongue by warm ocean waters

localised thickening and grounding of an antarctic ice shelf from tidal triggering and sizing of cryoseismicity abstract we observe remarkably periodic patterns of seismicity rates and magnitudes at the fimbul ice shelf east antarctica correlating with the cycles of the ocean tide our analysis covers 19 years of continuous seismic recordings from antarctic broadband stations seismicity commences abruptly during austral summer 2011 at a location near the ocean front in a shallow water region dozens of highly repetitive events occur in semi diurnal cycles with magnitudes and rates fluctuating steadily with the tide in contrast to the common unpredictability of earthquake magnitudes the event magnitudes show deterministic trends within single cycles and strong correlations with spring tides and tide height the events occur quasi periodically and the highly constrained event sources migrate landwards during rising tide we show that a simple mechanical model can explain most of the observations our model assumes stick slip motion on a patch of grounded ice shelf which is forced by the variations of the ocean tide height and ice flow the well fitted observations give new insights into the general process of frictional triggering of earthquakes while providing independent evidence of variations in ice shelf thickness and grounding

interannual variability of south china sea winter circulation response to luzon strait transport and el nino wind the el nino wind and luzon strait transport are important factors modulating the interannual variability of the southern and northern south china sea scs winter circulation respectively the joint effect of el nino wind and westward luzon strait transport drives a dipolar gyre with an anticyclonic cyclonic circulation anomaly in the southern northern scs which enhances the cross basin current that connects the scs western boundary current with the eastern boundary of the scs around the mindoro strait and then effectively modulates the interannual variability of mindoro strait transport an extreme el nino and large luzon strait intrusion occurred in winter 2015 16 and mooring observations and remote sensing data confirmed the presence of an intense dipolar gyre this resulted in an extreme eastward cross basin current and outward scs mindoro strait transport anomaly in 2015 16

tidally driven stick slip motion in the mouth of whillans ice stream antarctica we show that the ice plain in the mouth of whillans ice stream formerly ice stream b antarctica moves by stick slip motion during a spring tide period rapid motions regularly occur near high tide and during falling tide this correlation is weaker during a neap tide period when the tidal magnitudes are less precise timing of these motion events suggests that they propagate through the region with a mean velocity of 88 ms 1 we hypothesize that this speed is associated with the propagation of shear waves through a wet subglacial till motion events are also seen on more smoothly flowing floating ice event delays are very short between grounded and floating stations suggesting the events propagate through the ice shelf as an elastic wave we further hypothesize the events are caused by the interaction of a sticky bed the accumulation of stored elastic strain through the compression of ice by upstream inflow and tidal forcing motion events seem to be triggered either by reduction of vertical normal stresses at high tide or by the increase of shear stresses from sub shelf ocean currents during falling tide event magnitudes are not related to the length of the preceding quiescent period suggesting significant viscous dissipation within the till

the evolving instability of the remnant larsen b ice shelf and its tributary glaciers 2015 elsevier b v following the 2002 disintegration of the northern and central parts of the larsen b ice shelf the tributary glaciers of the southern surviving part initially appeared relatively unchanged and hence assumed to be buttressed sufficiently by the remnant ice shelf here we modify this perception with observations from icebridge altimetry and insar inferred ice flow speeds our analyses show that the surfaces of leppard and flask glaciers directly upstream from their grounding lines lowered by 15 to 20 m in the period 2002 2011 the thinning appears to be dynamic as the flow of both glaciers and the remnant ice shelf accelerated in the same period flask glacier started accelerating even before the 2002 disintegration increasing its flow speed by 55 between 1997 and 2012 starbuck glacier meanwhile did not change much we hypothesize that the different evolutions of the three glaciers are related to their dissimilar bed topographies and degrees of grounding we apply numerical modeling and data assimilation that show these changes to be accompanied by a reduction in the buttressing afforded by the remnant ice shelf a weakening of the shear zones between its flow units and an increase in its fracture the fast flowing northwestern part of the remnant ice shelf exhibits increasing fragmentation while the stagnant southeastern part seems to be prone to the formation of large rifts some of which we show have delimited successive calving events a large rift only 12 km downstream from the grounding line is currently traversing the stagnant part of the ice shelf defining the likely front of the next large calving event we propose that the flow acceleration ice front retreat and enhanced fracture of the remnant larsen b ice shelf presage its approaching demise

near 5 day nonisostatic response to atmospheric surface pressure and coastal trapped waves observed in the northern south china sea abstractoceanic nonisostatic responses to near 5 day rossby haurwitz atmospheric pressure waves have been observed in open oceans however such responses based on observations in marginal seas such as the south china sea have not been reported owing to the limited ocean bottom pressure pbot records the pbot measurements from pressure recording inverted echo sounders piess at sites in the northern south china sea revealed a nonisostatic like response near 5 days although the coastal trapped waves ctws appeared to obscure it because their broadband periods include the near 5 day band cross spectral analysis revealed that the pies pbot records and the sea level sl records of hong kong all correlate strongly with the atmospheric pressure and winds over the east china sea this is indicative of remotely forced ctws the pies pbot records showed higher coherence near 5 days with the zonal low pass wavelength filters applied to the atmospheric pressure and the phase analysis results strongly suggest

intraseasonal variability of cross slope flow in the northern south china sea abstractcross slope flow plays an important role in the exchange of material heat and momentum between the continental shelf and the open sea in the northern south china sea scs long period ob

sensitivity of 21st century sea level to ocean induced thinning of pine island glacier antarctica 1 pine island glacier pig antarctica is rapidly losing mass supporting arguments that it may play a major role in 21st century sea level rise yet this glacier s quantitative contribution to sea level based on theoretical and computational models is poorly known we have developed a basin scale glaciological model to examine the sensitivity of pig to a range of environmental forcings while oceanic melt likely played the leading role in recent thinning and retreat we find that the particular grounding line geometry with an extended ice plain in the 1990s made it susceptible to such forcing our model further indicates that while the rate of grounding line retreat should diminish soon the glacier s mass loss may continue at rates similar to or moderately elevated from the present while substantial our model derived maximum rate of 2 7 cm century is considerably smaller than previous heuristically derived bounds on the sea level contribution

ice shelf grounding zone structure from icesat laser altimetry 1 we present a technique for investigating the grounding zone gz of antarctic ice shelves using laser altimetry from the ice cloud and land elevation satellite icesat most surface height variability in the gz is easily resolved by the icesat laser s 65 m footprint and 172 m along track spacing comparisons of repeated tracks sampled at different phases of the ocean tide identify the landward and seaward limits of tide forced ice flexure providing gz location and width information for each track using icesat data in the institute ice stream region of southern ronne ice shelf we demonstrate that the location of the gz based on feature identification in satellite imagery or digital elevation models may be in error by several km our results show that icesat will contribute significantly to improving knowledge of gz structure and to studies requiring accurate gz locations e g ice mass balance calculations and ice sheet ocean modeling

a deep subglacial embayment adjacent to the grounding line of institute ice stream west antarctica the institute ice stream iis in west antarctica may be increasingly vulnerable to melting at the grounding line through modifications in ocean circulation understanding such change requires knowledge of grounding line boundary conditions including the topography on which it rests here we discuss evidence from new radio echo sounding res data on the subglacial topography adjacent to the grounding line of the iis in doing so we reveal a previously unknown subglacial embayment immediately inland of the iis grounding zone which is not represented in the bedmap2 compilation we discuss whether there is an open water connection between the embayment and the ice shelf cavity the exact location of the grounding line over the embayment has been the subject of considerable uncertainty with several positions being proposed recently from our compilation of data we are able to explain which of these grounding lines is most likely and in doing so highlight the need for accurate bed topography in conjunction with satellite observations to fully comprehend ice sheet processes in this region and other vulnerable locations at the grounded margin of antarctica

basal mass budget of ross and filchner ronne ice shelves antarctica derived from lagrangian analysis of icesat altimetry traditional methods of deriving temporal variability of antarctic ice shelf elevation from satellite altimetry use a fixed eulerian reference frame where the measured changes include advection of ice thickness gradients between measurement epochs we present a new method which removes advection effects by using an independent velocity field to compare elevations in a moving lagrangian reference frame applying the technique to icesat laser altimetry for the period 2003 2009 over the two largest antarctic ice shelves ross and filchner ronne we show that the lagrangian approach reduces the variability of derived elevation changes by about 50 compared to the eulerian approach and reveals clearer spatial patterns of elevation change the method simplifies the process of estimating basal mass budget from the residual of all other processes that contribute to ice shelf elevation changes we use field data and icesat measurements over ice rises and the grounded ice sheet to account for surface accumulation and changes in firn air content and remove the effect of ice flow divergence using surface velocity and ice thickness data the results show highest basal melt rates 5 m a 1 near the deep grounding lines of major ice streams but smaller melt rates 5 m a 1 near the ice shelf fronts are equally important to total meltwater production since they occur over larger areas integrating over the entire ice shelf areas we obtain basal mass budgets of 50 64 gt a 1 for ross and 124 66 gt a 1 for filchner ronne with changes in firn air content as the largest error source

internal tides in the northwestern south china sea observed by pressure recording inverted echo sounders abstract this study presents it observations in the northwestern scs from five pressure recording inverted echo sounders piess the vertical round trip acoustic travel times that piess measures are proportional to the vertical thermocline displacements therefore piess can be used to monitor the 1st mode internal tides piess were deployed along a section between the continental shelf break in the north and xisha islands in the south measurements show that both diurnal and semidiurnal its were stronger on the northern and southern sides of the section than those in the middle their temporal variations were coherent with local surface tides which implies locally generated its may be important complex empirical orthogonal function analysis reveals a small phase difference the south leads the north by 70 across the section for diurnal its but a significant phase difference the north leads the south by 360 for semidiurnal its these observations indicate that the dominant diurnal its propagate across the section from east to west while the semidiurnal its propagate along the section from north to south a ray tracing model was utilized to demonstrate the impact of mesoscale circulation patterns on the propagation of diurnal its from the luzon strait to the pies sites the model explains the temporal it variations which were incoherent with local surface tides the result indicates that diurnal its in the northwestern scs can be affected by its propagating from the luzon strait while semidiurnal its are primarily generated locally from the continental shelf break in the north

steep reverse bed slope at the grounding line of the weddell sea sector in west antarctica the bed of the west antarctic ice sheet is in places more than 1 5 km below sea level1 2 it has been suggested that a positive ice loss feedback may occur when an ice sheet s grounding line retreats across a deepening bed1 2 3 applied to the west antarctic ice sheet this process could potentially raise global sea level4 by more than 3 m hitherto attention has focussed on changes at the siple coast5 6 7 and amundsen sea embayment8 9 10 sectors of west antarctica here we present radio echo sounding information from the ice sheet s third sector the weddell sea embayment that reveals a large subglacial basin immediately upstream of the grounding line the reverse bed slope is steep with about 400 m of decline over 40 km the basin floor is smooth and flat with little small scale topography that would delay retreat indicating that it has been covered with marine sediment5 11 and was previously deglaciated upstream of the basin well defined glacially carved fjords with bars at their mouths testify to the position of a former ice margin about 200 km inland from the present margin evidence so far suggests that the weddell sea sector of the west antarctic ice sheet has been stable but in the light of our data we propose that the region could be near a physical threshold of substantial change

on the interpretation of ice shelf flexure measurements tidal flexure in ice shelf grounding zones has been used extensively in the past to determine grounding line position and ice properties although the rheology of ice is viscoelastic at tidal loading frequencies most modelling studies have assumed some form of linear elastic beam approximation to match observed flexure profiles here we use density radar and dinsar measurements in combination with full stokes viscoelastic modelling to investigate a range of additional controls on the flexure of the southern mcmurdo ice shelf we find that inclusion of observed basal crevasses and density dependent ice stiffness can greatly alter the flexure profile and yet fitting a simple elastic beam model to that profile will still produce an excellent fit estimates of the effective young s modulus derived by fitting flexure profiles are shown to vary by over 200 depending on whether these factors are included even when the local thickness is well constrained conversely estimates of the grounding line position are relatively insensitive to these considerations for the case of a steep bed slope in our study region by fitting tidal amplitudes only and ignoring phase information elastic beam theory can provide a good fit to observations in a wide variety of situations this should however not be taken as an indication that the underlying rheological assumptions are correct

major ice sheet change in the weddell sea sector of west antarctica over the last 5 000 years until recently little was known about the weddell sea sector of the west antarctic ice sheet in the last 10 years a variety of expeditions and numerical modelling experiments have improved knowledge of its glaciology glacial geology and tectonic setting two of the sector s largest ice streams rest on a steep reverse sloping bed yet despite being vulnerable to change satellite observations show contemporary stability there is clear evidence for major ice sheet reconfiguration in the last few thousand years however knowing precisely how the ice sheet has changed in the past and when would allow us to better understand whether it is now at risk two competing hypotheses have been established for this glacial history in one the ice sheet retreated and thinned progressively from its last glacial maximum position retreat stopped at or very near the present position in the late holocene alternatively in the late holocene the ice sheet retreated significantly upstream of the present grounding line and then advanced to the present location due to glacial isostatic adjustment and ice shelf and ice rise buttressing both hypotheses point to data and theory in their support yet neither has been unequivocally tested or falsified here we review geophysical evidence to determine how each hypothesis has been formed where there are inconsistencies in the respective glacial histories how they may be tested or reconciled and what new evidence is required to reach a common model for the late holocene ice sheet history of the weddell sea sector of west antarctica

sedimentation beneath ice shelves the view from ice stream b abstract ice shelf development is favored by rapid flow of cold ice from outlet glaciers or ice streams into protected embayments with localized high spots basal melting of ice shelves is rapid near the ice front and may occur near the grounding line ice from outlet glaciers may contain significant englacial debris that is deposited as a dropstone diamicton in regions of basal melting englacial debris is sparse or absent in ice streams evidence from ice stream b draining into the ross ice shelf of west antarctica suggests that the rapid ice velocity arises from deformation of a several meter thick water saturated basal till layer that is eroding an unconformity on sediments beneath and that has deposited a till delta tens of meters thick and tens of kilometers long at the grounding line sea level fall would cause conveyor belt recycling of this till delta and grounding line advance across the ross sea to the edge of the continental shelf forming an ice sheet with a low ice stream profile resting on a several meter thick deforming till layer eroding an unconformity the modern ross sea is characterized by a regional unconformity overlain by a diamicton of probable latest pliocene pleistocene age measuring several meters to tens of meters thick we hypothesize that this diamicton is a deformed glacial till and that the ross sea sediments record one or more expansions of the till lubricated west antarctic ice sheet to the edge of the continental shelf

investigations of an ice plain in the mouth of pine island glacier antarctica we present newly acquired airborne radar data showing ice thickness and surface elevation for pine island glacier antarctica these data when combined with earlier measurements suggest the presence of a lightly grounded area immediately above the grounding line of pine island glacier we identify this region as a ice plain it lies close to the centre line of the glacier has an elevation above buoyancy of 28 km the upstream edge of the ice plain is defined by a coupling line the configuration of the ice plain implies that nearby thinning of the ice stream would result in substantial grounding line retreat we suggest that the grounding line retreat of pine island glacier observed between 1992 and 1996 probably commenced sometime after 1981

grounding line basal melt rates determined using radar derived internal stratigraphy we use ice penetrating radar data across grounding lines of siple dome and roosevelt island antarctica to measure the spatial pattern magnitude and duration of sub ice shelf melting at these locations stratigraphic layers across the grounding line show in places a large amplitude downwarp at or slightly downstream of the grounding line due to sub ice shelf basal melting localized downwarping indicates that melting is transient melt rates or the grounding line position have changed within a few hundred years in order to produce the observed stratigraphy elsewhere no melt related stratigraphic signature is preserved in part heterogeneity in the amount of sub ice shelf melt is due to regional circulation patterns in the sub shelf cavity but local on the order of tens of kilometers heterogeneity in the melt pattern may reflect small differences in the shape of the ice shelf base at the grounding line we find that all of the grounding lines crossed have been in place for at most 400 years

upper layer circulation in the south china sea abstract upper layer circulation is investigated by using all available historical temperature profiles combined with climatological temperature salinity relationships in the south china sea two cyclonic eddies are revealed one is located east of vietnam called the east vietnam eddy and the other is off northwest luzon called the west luzon eddy both local ekman pumping and remotely forced basin scale circulation are important mechanisms controlling these two eddies the luzon strait transport relative to 400 db is estimated to be of the order 3 0 sv 1 sv 1 106 m3 s 1 in the mean and has a seasonal cycle dominated by the annual signal with a maximum 5 3 sv in january february and a minimum 0 2 sv in june july pressure gradients are also examined to explore the dynamics of the intrusion of waters from the pacific into the south china sea through the luzon strait

tidal pressurization of the ocean cavity near an antarctic ice shelf grounding line mass loss from the antarctic ice sheet is sensitive to conditions in ice shelf grounding zones the transition between grounded and floating ice to observe tidal dynamics in the grounding zone we moored an ocean pressure sensor to ross ice shelf recording data for 54 days in this region the ice shelf is brought out of hydrostatic equilibrium by the flexural rigidity of ice yet we found that tidal pressure variations at a constant geopotential surface were similar within and outside of the grounding zone this implies that the grounding zone ocean cavity was overpressurized at high tide and underpressurized at low tide by up to 10 kpa with respect to glaciostatic pressure at the ice shelf base phase lags between ocean pressure and vertical ice shelf motion were tens of minutes for diurnal and semidiurnal tides an effect that has not been incorporated into ocean models of tidal currents below ice shelves these tidal pressure variations may affect the production and export of meltwater in the subglacial environment and may increase basal crevasse heights in the grounding zone by several meters according to linear elastic fracture mechanics we find anomalously high tidal energy loss at the k1 constituent in the grounding zone and hypothesize that this could be explained by seawater injection into the subglacial environment at high tide or internal tide generation through interactions with topography these observations lay the foundation for improved representation of the grounding zone and its tidal dynamics in ocean circulation models of sub ice shelf cavities

an inventory of active subglacial lakes in antarctica detected by icesat 2003 2008 through the detection of surface deformation in response to water movement recent satellite studies have demonstrated the existence of subglacial lakes in antarctica that fill and drain on timescales of months to years these studies however were confined to specific regions of the ice sheet here we present the first comprehensive study of these active lakes for the antarctic ice sheet north of 868 s based on 4 5 years 2003 08 of nasa s ice cloud and land elevation satellite icesat laser altimeter data our analysis has detected 124 lakes that were active during this period and we estimate volume changes for each lake the icesat detected lakes are prevalent in coastal antarctica and are present under most of the largest ice stream catchments lakes sometimes appear to transfer water from one to another but also often exchange water with distributed sources undetectable by icesat suggesting that the lakes may provide water to or withdraw water from the hydrologic systems that lubricate glacier flow thus these reservoirs may contribute pulses of water to produce rapid temporal changes in glacier speeds but also may withdraw water at other times to slow flow

remote sensing of glacier and ice sheet grounding lines a review abstract the precise positioning and long term monitoring of the grounding line forming the boundary between grounded and floating ice of marine ice sheets and tidewater glaciers is critical for assessing ice sheet glacier stability ice sheet glacier mass balance calculations and numerical ice modelling however mapping of the grounding line is a challenging task since it is a subglacial and transient feature remote sensing techniques do not map the grounding line directly but locate surface features in the grounding zone that serve as proxies for the true grounding line position the large variety of methods products and publications as well as an inconsistent use of terminology additionally complicate the topic we present the first detailed review of existing remote sensing techniques and data for grounding line mapping benefits and limitations of the different techniques and data sources are discussed and illustrated with examples we identify a present tradeoff between accuracy and both spatial coverage and temporal resolution of the derived grounding line products rather new methods like sentinel 1 sar synthetic aperture radar differential range offset tracking drot and pseudo crossover radar altimetry pcra offer the potential for recent measurements and to fill gaps in some areas nevertheless there is a high demand of new spaceborne radar sensors that provide time series of very short repeat pass data to enable regular grounding line monitoring with most accurate differential sar interferometry dinsar on a continental scale

structural provinces of the ross ice shelf antarctica the surface of the ross ice shelf ris is textured by flow stripes crevasses and other features related to ice flow and deformation here moderate resolution optical satellite images are used to map and classify regions of the ris characterized by different surface textures because the textures arise from ice deformation the map is used to identify structural provinces with common deformation history we classify four province types regions associated with large outlet glaciers shear zones extension downstream of obstacles and suture zones between provinces with different upstream sources adjacent provinces with contrasting histories are in some locations deforming at different rates suggesting that our province map is also an ice fabric map structural provinces have more complicated shapes in the part of the ice shelf fed by west antarctic ice streams than in the part fed by outlet glaciers from the transantarctic mountains the map may be used to infer past variations in stress conditions and flow events that cannot be inferred from flow traces alone

ephemeral grounding as a signal of ice shelf change interferometric synthetic aperture radar insar observations of ice shelf tidal deformation reveal the wide transition between grounded and floating ice as well as local areas where the ice shelf is only grounded at low tide a condition that we call ephemeral grounding ephemeral grounding creates a subtle local disturbance on the vertical motion field of the ice shelf surface in response to changes in occanic tide which is detected with millimetric precision using insar these ice shelf features are however not expected to produce a noticeable disturbance on the ice shelf velocity field to illustrate the influence of ephemeral grounding on ice shelf creep flow we use a finite element model in which ephemeral grounding is incorporated through a variable basal friction coefficient the results show that while ice rises permanently grounded areas have a pronounced influence on the ice shelf velocity field areas of ephemeral grounding have a vanishingly small influence what is thus of most interest is the capacity for observations of ephemeral grounding to reveal subtle changes in ice shelf thickness over time we discuss an example in the thwaites glacier area west antarctica where multi year data show how ice rises become ephemeral grounding and subsequently disappear this result is consistent with the grounding line retreat and ice thinning of thwaites glacier

regional dynamics of seasonal variability in the south china sea abstract dynamics of the seasonal cycle of sea surface height ssh in the south china sea scs are studied using observations as well as numerical and theoretical models seasonal variability of the scs is interpreted in light of large scale dynamics and rossby waves it is found that the seasonal cycle over most of the scs basin is determined predominantly by the regional ocean dynamics within the scs the ssh variability is shown to be forced mainly by surface wind curl on baroclinic rossby waves annual baroclinic rossby waves cross the basin in less than a few months leaving the upper ocean in a quasi steady sverdrup balance an anomalous cyclonic anticyclonic gyre is generated in winter summer by the anomalous cyclonic anticyclonic wind curl that is associated with the northeasterly southwesterly monsoon in addition surface heat flux acts to enhance the wind generated variability the winter surface cooling warming cools warms the mixed layer especially in the central scs reducing

a new tide model for the antarctic ice shelves and seas we describe a new tide model for the seas surrounding antarctica including the ocean cavities under the floating ice shelves the model uses data assimilation to improve its fit to available data typical peak to peak tide ranges on ice shelves are 1 2 m but can exceed 3 m for the filchner ronne and larsen ice shelves in the weddell sea spring tidal ranges are about twice these values model performance is judged relative to the 5 10 cm accuracy that is needed to fully utilize ice shelf height data that will be collected with the geoscience laser altimeter system scheduled to be launched on the ice cloud and land elevation satellite in late 2002 the model does not yet achieve this level of accuracy except very near the few high quality tidal records that have been assimilated into the model some improvement in predictive skill is expected from increased sophistication of model physics but we also require better definition of ice shelf grounding lines and more accurate water column thickness data in shelf seas and under the ice shelves long duration tide measurements bottom pressure gauge or gps in critical data sparse areas particularly near and on the filchner ronne and ross ice shelves and pine island bay are required to improve the performance of the data assimilation model

ice sheet grounding line dynamics steady states stability and hysteresis 1 the ice sheet ice shelf transition zone plays an important role in controlling marine ice sheet dynamics as it determines the rate at which ice flows out of the grounded part of the ice sheet together with accumulation this outflow is the main control on the mass balance of the grounded sheet in this paper we verify the results of a boundary layer theory for ice flux in the transition zone against numerical solutions that are able to resolve the transition zone very close agreement is obtained and grid refinement in the transition zone is identified as a critical component in obtaining reliable numerical results the boundary layer theory confirms that ice flux through the grounding line in a two dimensional sheet shelf system increases sharply with ice thickness at the grounding line this result is then applied to the large scale dynamics of a marine ice sheet our principal results are that 1 marine ice sheets do not exhibit neutral equilibrium but have well defined discrete equilibrium profiles 2 steady grounding lines cannot be stable on reverse bed slopes and 3 marine ice sheets with overdeepened beds can undergo hysteresis under variations in sea level accumulation rate basal slipperiness and ice viscosity this hysteretic behavior can in principle explain the retreat of the west antarctic ice sheet following the last glacial maximum and may play a role in the dynamics of heinrich events

four decade record of pervasive grounding line retreat along the bellingshausen margin of west antarctica changes to the grounding line where grounded ice starts to float can be used as a remotely sensed measure of ice sheet susceptibility to ocean forced dynamic thinning constraining this susceptibility is vital for predicting antarctica s contribution to rising sea levels we use landsat imagery to monitor grounding line movement over four decades along the bellingshausen margin of west antarctica an area little monitored despite potential for future ice losses we show that 65 of the grounding line retreated from 1990 to 2015 with pervasive and accelerating retreat in regions of fast ice flow and or thinning ice shelves venable ice shelf confounds expectations in that despite extensive thinning its grounding line has undergone negligible retreat we present evidence that the ice shelf is currently pinned to a sub ice topographic high which if breached could facilitate ice retreat into a significant inland basin analogous to nearby pine island glacier

ice shelf tidal flexure and subglacial pressure variations abstract we develop a model of an ice shelf ice stream system as a viscoelastic beam partially supported by an elastic foundation when bedrock near the grounding line acts as a fulcrum leverage from the ice shelf dropping at low tide can cause significant 1 cm uplift in the first few kilometers of grounded ice this uplift and the corresponding depression at high tide lead to basal pressure variations of sufficient magnitude to influence subglacial hydrology tidal flexure may thus affect basal lubrication sediment flow and till strength all of which are significant factors in ice stream dynamics and grounding line stability under certain circumstances our results suggest the possibility of seawater being drawn into the subglacial water system the presence of seawater beneath grounded ice would significantly change the radar reflectivity of the grounding zone and complicate the interpretation of grounded versus floating ice based on ice penetrating radar observations

weakest winter south china sea western boundary current caused by the 2015 2016 el nino event during the winter of 2015 2016 the strongest el nino event of the 21st century occurred at the same time volume transport vt time series of the south china sea western boundary current scswbc exhibited a minimum value of 3 7 sv 1 sv 1 106 m3 s 1 toward the southwest indicating the weakest strength ever recorded in boreal winter from november to february the south china sea scs cyclonic gyre inferred from the satellite derived surface absolute geostrophic current was significantly reduced it was considered that the weakened wind stress curl negative anomaly over the scs resulting from an anticyclone over the philippine sea played an essential role the anticyclone arose from a rossby wave response to a negative sea surface temperature anomaly in the northwest pacific this idea is further supported by composite analysis which shows that during el nino la nina winter negative positive wind stress curl anomalies prevail in the philippines sea and the scs thus the wind stress curl over the scs is reduced strengthened leading to a weaker stronger scs cyclonic gyre and scswbc the mean vt of scswbc is 4 7 sv 5 6 sv which is smaller larger than 5 2 sv in normal years this study provides robust observational evidence from long term in situ volume transport monitoring that el nino can have a significant impact on the scswbc through an atmosphere bridged teleconnection this article is protected by copyright all rights reserved

pacific east asian teleconnection how does enso affect east asian climate observational evidence is presented to show a teleconnection between the central pacific and east asia during the extreme phases of enso cycles this pacific east asian teleconnection is confined to the lower troposphere the key system that bridges the warm cold events in the eastern pacific and the weak strong east asian winter monsoons is an anomalous lower tropospheric anticyclone cyclone located in the western north pacific the western north pacific wind anomalies develop rapidly in late fall of the year when a strong warm or cold event matures the anomalies persist until the following spring or early summer causing anomalously wet dry conditions along the east asian polar front stretching from southern china northeastward to the east of japan kuroshio extension using atmospheric general circulation and intermediate models the authors show that the anomalous philippine sea anticyclone results from a rossby wave response to suppressed convective heating which is induced by both the in situ ocean surface cooling and the subsidence forced remotely by the central pacific warming the development of the anticyclone is nearly concurrent with the enhancement of the local sea surface cooling both the anticyclone and the cooling region propagate slowly eastward the development and persistence of the teleconnection is primarily attributed to a positive thermodynamic feedback between the anticyclone and the sea surface cooling in the presence of mean northeasterly trades the rapid establishment of the philippine sea wind and sst anomalies implies the occurrence of extratropical tropical interactions through cold surge induced exchanges of surface buoyancy flux the central pacific warming plays an essential role in the development of the western pacific cooling and the wind anomalies by setting up a favorable environment for the anticyclone sst interaction and midlatitude tropical interaction in the western north pacific

elastic dynamics and tidal migration of grounding lines modify subglacial lubrication and melting 1 we combine the dynamics of ice bed and ocean in a new elastic model for the tidal timescale migration of grounding lines on deformable foundations previous interpretations of tidal flexure using models of elastic ice shelves with fixed grounding lines were found to be inconsistent suggesting an elasticity of ice that varies spatially and temporally and that is significantly smaller than measured experimentally we argue here that with our model a consistent purely elastic interpretation can be made combining this new approach with remote sensing measurements we show that the grounding line migrates several kilometers during a tidal cycle that we can infer the effective elastic properties of the bed and that the elastic pressure of the ice leads to a hydrological barrier near the grounding line that controls subglacial hydrology our findings imply that subglacial lubrication and melting induced by the ocean thermal forcing can increase substantially during high tide

greenland ice sheet mass balance distribution of increased mass loss with climate warming 2003 07 versus 1992 2002 we derive mass changes of the greenland ice sheet gis for 2003 07 from icesat laser altimetry and compare them with results for 1992 2002 from ers radar and airborne laser altimetry the gis continued to grow inland and thin at the margins during 2003 07 but surface melting and accelerated flow significantly increased the marginal thinning compared with the 1990s the net balance changed from a small loss of 7 3g t a 1 in the 1990s to 171 4g t a 1 for 2003 07 contributing 0 5 mm a 1 to recent global sea level rise we divide the derived mass changes into two components 1 from changes in melting and ice dynamics and 2 from changes in precipitation and accumulation rate we use our firn compaction model to calculate the elevation changes driven by changes in both temperature and accumulation rate and to calculate the appropriate density to convert the accumulation driven changes to mass changes increased losses from melting and ice dynamics 17 206 gt a 1 are over seven times larger than increased gains from precipitation 10 35 gt a 1 during a warming period of 2 k 10 a 1 over the gis above 2000 m elevation the rate of gain decreased from 44 to 28 gt a 1 while below 2000 m the rate of loss increased from 51 to 198 gt a 1 enhanced thinning below the equilibrium line on outlet glaciers indicates that increased melting has a significant impact on outlet glaciers as well as accelerating ice flow increased thinning at higher elevations appears to be induced by dynamic coupling to thinning at the margins on decadal timescales

icesat antarctic elevation data preliminary precision and accuracy assessment 1 since first light on february 20th 2003 nasa s ice cloud and land elevation satellite icesat has derived surface elevations from 86 n to 86 s latitude these unique altimetry data have been acquired in a series of observation periods in repeated track patterns using all three geoscience laser altimeter system glas lasers here we focus on antarctic ice sheet elevation data that were obtained in 2003 2004 we present preliminary precision and accuracy assessments of selected elevation data and discuss factors impacting elevation change detection we show that for low slope and clear sky conditions the precision of gla12 laser 2a release 21 data is 2 1 cm and the relative accuracy of icesat elevations is 14 cm based on crossover differences

tides on filchner ronne ice shelf from ers radar altimetry 1 we use harmonic analysis of 8 years of ers satellite radar altimeter ra data at orbital crossovers to retrieve complex amplitude amplitude and phase coefficients for several major tidal harmonics over the filchner ronne ice shelf fris antarctica we describe a method for estimating the accuracy of this method which ranges from 2 to 8 cm per harmonic a comparison between m2 complex amplitude from a recent ocean model and from our ers ra analyses identifies two regions of the fris where the ra data are inconsistent with the model in both regions the differences can be attributed to incorrect specification of the grounding line location in the model our study demonstrates the value of ers ra data in antarctic ice shelf tide modeling and the potential for future altimeter satellites with high polar orbits to contribute to the definition of global tide height variations

antarctic ice rises and rumples their properties and significance for ice sheet dynamics and evolution locally grounded features in ice shelves called ice rises and rumples play a key role buttressing discharge from the antarctic ice sheet and regulating its contribution to sea level ice rises typically rise several hundreds of meters above the surrounding ice shelf shelf flow is diverted around them on the other hand shelf ice flows across ice rumples which typically rise only a few tens of meters above the ice shelf ice rises contain rich histories of deglaciation and climate that extend back over timescales ranging from a few millennia to beyond the last glacial maximum numerical model results have shown that the buttressing effects of ice rises and rumples are significant but details of processes and how they evolve remain poorly understood fundamental information about the conditions and processes that cause transitions between floating ice shelves ice rises and ice rumples is needed in order to assess their impact on ice sheet behavior targeted high resolution observational data are needed to evaluate and improve prognostic numerical models and parameterizations of the effects of small scale pinning points on grounding zone dynamics

observations beneath pine island glacier in west antarctica and implications for its retreat thinning ice in west antarctica is currently contributing about 10 of the observed rise in global sea level observations obtained from an autonomous underwater vehicle operating beneath pine island glacier west antarctica reveal that the glacier was recently grounded on a transverse ridge in the sea floor but now warm sea water flows through the widening gap above the ridge thinning ice in west antarctica resulting from acceleration in the flow of outlet glaciers is at present contributing about 10 of the observed rise in global sea level1 pine island glacier in particular has shown nearly continuous acceleration2 3 and thinning4 5 throughout the short observational record the floating ice shelf that forms where the glacier reaches the coast has been thinning rapidly6 driven by changes in ocean heat transport beneath it as a result the line that separates grounded and floating ice has retreated inland7 these events have been postulated as the cause for the inland thinning and acceleration8 9 here we report evidence gathered by an autonomous underwater vehicle operating beneath the ice shelf that pine island glacier was recently grounded on a transverse ridge in the sea floor warm sea water now flows through a widening gap above the submarine ridge rapidly melting the thick ice of the newly formed upstream half of the ice shelf the present evolution of pine island glacier is thus part of a longer term trend that has moved the downstream limit of grounded ice inland by 30 km into water that is 300 m deeper than over the ridge crest the pace and ultimate extent of such potentially unstable retreat10 are central to the debate over the possibility of widespread ice sheet collapse triggered by climate change11 12

characterizing meso to submesoscale features in the south china sea abstract in this study the mesoscale and submesoscale features in the south china sea scs are characterized based on a submesoscale permitting numerical simulation mitgcm llc4320 with nominal horizontal grid spacing of 1 48 2 2 km in the scs the simulation includes tidal forcing which is particularly crucial in the scs where tides play a key role in many aspects of regional dynamics evaluation against observations demonstrates that the simulation is capable of reproducing a wide spectrum of dynamical features in the scs the simulation is then used to characterize meso to submesoscale features in the scs and the key findings are summarized as follows i the scs is rich in submesoscale features e g vortices filaments which undergo significant seasonal variations in many regions ii there is a clear dominance of positive surface relative vorticity in most regions of the scs presumably due to the centrifugal instability but large negative also emerges in areas with strong flow topography interactions iii the vertical motions in the upper scs are dominated by tidal modulations with strong vertical velocities up to 0 01 m s 1 about an order of magnitude larger than those due to the quasi balanced sub inertial motions and iv both the wintertime and summertime horizontal wavenumber spectra of kinetic energy scale roughly as k 2 with k being the horizontal wavenumber for wavelengths below 100 km in addition four key regions are highlighted with distinctive characteristics of submesoscale turbulence including the northern scs luzon strait the scs western boundary current region in winter and east of vietnam in summer a number of model deficiencies are noted along with suggestions for improving model accuracy in order to better characterize the local submesoscale features as well as the underlying dynamics

investigating tidal flexure on an ice shelf using kinematic gps the positions of ice stream grounding zones are uniquely sensitive to changes in the mass balance of the ice sheet present methods for locating groundingzone features are either imprecise or require considerable effort in interpretation and so are of little value for change studies we present a new method which uses the kinematic gps technique to locate the position of the limit of tidal flexure the method involves the collection of at least two surface elevation profiles along the same track through the grounding zone at different times during the tidal cycle the elevation profiles obtained coincide upstream of the limit of flexure but diverge downstream of the limit of flexure subtracting the profiles produces a tidal def1ection profile which shows directly the response of the ice shelf to the tidal forcing we present two examples of the use of this method both on rutford ice stream antarctica the first is across the grounding zone and shows that the method is capable of measuring grounding positions to around 200 m precision the second taken across an active shear margin shows a tidal deflection profile with an absence of steps that would indicate the presence of fracture planes penetrating from the ice base to sea level

thermal variations in the south china sea associated with the eastern and central pacific el nino events and their mechanisms in this study we investigate the interannual variability of the sea surface temperature sst in the south china sea scs associated with two types of el nino namely the eastern pacific ep el nino and the central pacific cp el nino first double warm peaks can occur during both types of el nino events in the scs however the strong warm basin mode can only develop in the ep el nino while the warm semibasin mode exists during the cp el nino associated with an anomalous positive negative net surface heat flux in the ep cp el nino along with a shallower thermocline with weaker stronger northeasterly wind anomalies the sst anomalies become warmer cooler in the developing autumn over the background of cooling sst in autumn of cp el nino therefore only a weak warming can occur in the subsequent years which is limited in the western boundary area under the forcing of warm ocean advection second the sst oscillation periods are different in these two types of el nino the sst evolution in the ep el nino is negative positive with a quasi biennial oscillation but that in the cp el nino is positive negative positive negative with an annual oscillation it seems that the double cooling in the cp el nino is phase locked to the late autumn season

the ice cloud and land elevation satellite 2 icesat 2 science requirements concept and implementation abstract the ice cloud and land elevation satellite icesat mission used laser altimetry measurements to determine changes in elevations of glaciers and ice sheets as well as sea ice thickness distribution these measurements have provided important information on the response of the cryopshere earth s frozen surfaces to changes in atmosphere and ocean condition icesat operated from 2003 to 2009 and provided repeat altimetry measurements not only to the cryosphere scientific community but also to the ocean terrestrial and atmospheric scientific communities the conclusive assessment of significant ongoing rapid changes in the earth s ice cover in part supported by icesat observations has strengthened the need for sustained high accuracy repeat observations similar to what was provided by the icesat mission following recommendations from the national research council for an icesat follow on mission the icesat 2 mission is now under development for planned launch in 2018 the primary scientific aims of the icesat 2 mission are to continue measurements of sea ice freeboard and ice sheet elevation to determine their changes at scales from outlet glaciers to the entire ice sheet and from 10s of meters to the entire polar oceans for sea ice freeboard icesat carried a single beam profiling laser altimeter that produced 70 m diameter footprints on the surface of the earth at 150 m along track intervals in contrast icesat 2 will operate with three pairs of beams each pair separated by about 3 km cross track with a pair spacing of 90 m each of the beams will have a nominal 17 m diameter footprint with an along track sampling interval of 0 7 m the differences in the icesat 2 measurement concept are a result of overcoming some limitations associated with the approach used in the icesat mission the beam pair configuration of icesat 2 allows for the determination of local cross track slope a significant factor in measuring elevation change for the outlet glaciers surrounding the greenland and antarctica coasts the multiple beam pairs also provide improved spatial coverage the dense spatial sampling eliminates along track measurement gaps and the small footprint diameter is especially useful for sea surface height measurements in the often narrow leads needed for sea ice freeboard and ice thickness retrievals the icesat 2 instrumentation concept uses a low energy 532 nm green laser in conjunction with single photon sensitive detectors to measure range combining icesat 2 data with altimetry data collected since the start of the icesat mission in 2003 such as operation icebridge and esa s cryosat 2 will yield a 15 year record of changes in ice sheet elevation and sea ice thickness icesat 2 will also provide information of mountain glacier and ice cap elevations changes land and vegetation heights inland water elevations sea surface heights and cloud layering and optical thickness

a two dimensional gravest empirical mode determined from hydrographic observations in the subantarctic front abstract south of australia where the baroclinicity in the subantarctic front extends almost to the seafloor the geopotential height of the sea surface and the vertical acoustic travel time exhibit a tight empirical relationship to each other and to the entire vertical structure of temperature t p salinity s p and specific volume anomaly p measurements of provide proxy estimates of the profiles tg p sg p and g p based on a two dimensional gravest empirical mode gem representation of the vertical structure fitted to 212 hydrographic stations a seasonal model was fitted in the near surface layers using additional historical data at each depth in the range 150 3000 dbar more than 96 of the variance in both the t and fields is captured by the gem representation during the subantarctic flux and dynamics experiment mar 1995 mar 1997 inverted echo sounders ies and current meters were moored in a 2d array along the woce sr3 transect south of australia at each i

the structure of west antarctica from geophysical studies the subglacial topographical and geological configurations of west antarctica and the boundary zone between east and west antarctica are poorly known yet they are crucial to our understanding of the tectonic evolution of the pacific proto atlantic margin of gondwanaland preliminary results are presented of simultaneous airborne radio echo and magnetic sounding of 106 km2 of west antarctica including detailed maps of ice sheet and bedrock surfaces magnetics radio echo and other available geophysical data suggest interpretations of sub glacial geology

sharply increased mass loss from glaciers and ice caps in the canadian arctic archipelago the canadian arctic archipelago contains one third of the global volume of land ice outside the ice sheets but its contribution to sea level change is largely unknown gardner et al use three independent techniques to reveal that mass loss from the archipelago was 92 12 gigatonnes per year in 2007 09 about three times greater than in 2004 06 and coincident with warmer summer temperatures the record is too short to allow a firm conclusion on longer term trends but it is clear that the canadian arctic archipelago is a significant contributor to sea level rise mountain glaciers and ice caps are contributing significantly to present rates of sea level rise and will continue to do so over the next century and beyond1 2 3 4 5 the canadian arctic archipelago located off the northwestern shore of greenland contains one third of the global volume of land ice outside the ice sheets6 but its contribution to sea level change remains largely unknown here we show that the canadian arctic archipelago has recently lost 61 7 gigatonnes per year gt yr 1 of ice contributing 0 17 0 02 mm yr 1 to sea level rise our estimates are of regional mass changes for the ice caps and glaciers of the canadian arctic archipelago referring to the years 2004 to 2009 and are based on three independent approaches surface mass budget modelling plus an estimate of ice discharge smb d repeat satellite laser altimetry icesat and repeat satellite gravimetry grace all three approaches show consistent and large mass loss estimates between the periods 2004 2006 and 2007 2009 the rate of mass loss sharply increased from 31 8 gt yr 1 to 92 12 gt yr 1 in direct response to warmer summer temperatures to which rates of ice loss are highly sensitive 64 14 gt yr 1 per 1 k increase the duration of the study is too short to establish a long term trend but for 2007 2009 the increase in the rate of mass loss makes the canadian arctic archipelago the single largest contributor to eustatic sea level rise outside greenland and antarctica

mapping the grounding zone of the ross ice shelf antarctica using icesat laser altimetry we use laser altimetry from the ice cloud and land elevation satellite icesat to map the grounding zone gz of the ross ice shelf antarctica at 491 locations where icesat tracks cross the grounding line gl ice flexure in the gz occurs as the ice shelf responds to short term sea level changes due primarily to tides icesat repeat track analysis can be used to detect this region of flexure since each repeated pass is acquired at a different tidal phase the technique provides estimates for both the landward limit of flexure and the point where the ice becomes hydrostatically balanced we find that the icesat derived landward limits of tidal flexure are in many places offset by several km and up to 60 km from the gl mapped previously using other satellite methods we discuss the reasons why different mapping methods lead to different gl estimates including instrument limitations variability in the surface topographic structure of the gz and the presence of ice plains we conclude that reliable and accurate mapping of the gl is most likely to be achieved when based on synthesis of several satellite datasets

advection of pore fluids through sediments in the equatorial east pacific measurements of the ratio of helium 4 to helium 3 and of calcium ion in the pore waters of sediments at two locations in the eastern equatorial pacific indicate that solution advection is occurring through the sediments both the helium ratio and the calcium ion profile yield velocity values for advective flow of about 20 centimeters per year mass balance constraints are also consistent with the interpretation presented flow appears to be occurring thorugh relatively thick sediments on the order of 300 meters

effect of sedimentation on ice sheet grounding line stability sedimentation filling space beneath ice shelves helps to stabilize ice sheets against grounding line retreat in response to a rise in relative sea level of at least several meters recent antarctic changes thus cannot be attributed to sea level rise strengthening earlier interpretations that warming has driven ice sheet mass loss large sea level rise such as the 100 meter rise at the end of the last ice age may overwhelm the stabilizing feedback from sedimentation but smaller sea level changes are unlikely to have synchronized the behavior of ice sheets in the past

ice flow structure and ice dynamic changes in the weddell sea sector of west antarctica from radar imaged internal layering recent studies have aroused concerns over the potential for ice draining the weddell sea sector of west antarctica to figure more prominently in sea level contributions should buttressing from the filchner ronne ice shelf diminish to improve understanding of how ice stream dynamics there evolved through the holocene we interrogate radio echo sounding res data from across the catchments of institute and moller ice streams iis and mis focusing especially on the use of internal layering to investigate ice flow change as an important component of this work we investigate the influence that the orientation of the res acquisition track with respect to ice flow exerts on internal layering and find that this influence is minimal unless a res flight track parallels ice flow we also investigate potential changes to internal layering characteristics with depth to search for important temporal transitions in ice flow regime our findings suggest that ice in northern iis draining the ellsworth subglacial highlands has retained its present ice flow configuration throughout the holocene this contrasts with less topographically constrained ice in southern iis and much of mis whose internal layering evinces spatial changes to the configuration of ice flow over the past 10 000 years our findings confirm siegert et al s 2013 inference that fast flow was diverted from bungenstock ice rise during the late holocene and suggest that this may have represented just one component of wider regional changes to ice flow occurring across the iis and mis catchments as the west antarctic ice sheet has thinned since the last glacial maximum

mesoscale eddies in the south china sea mean properties spatiotemporal variability and impact on thermohaline structure we investigated mean properties and the spatiotemporal variability of eddies in the south china sea scs by analyzing more than 7000 eddies corresponding to 827 eddy tracks identified using the winding angle method and 17 years of satellite altimetry data eddies are mainly generated in a northeast southwest direction and southwest of luzon strait there is no significant difference between the numbers of two types of eddies anticyclonic and cyclonic in most regions the mean radius and lifetime of eddies are 132 km and 8 8 weeks respectively both depending on where the eddies are formed anticyclonic and cyclonic eddies tend to deform during their lifetimes in different ways furthermore eddy propagation and evolution characteristics are examined in the northern scs eddies mainly propagate southwestward along the continental slope with velocities of 5 0 9 0 cm s 1 while in the central scs eddies tend to move with slight divergence but still in a quasi westward direction with velocities of 2 0 6 4 cm s 1 eddy propagation in the western basin to the east of vietnam is quite random with no uniform propagate direction investigation of 38 long lived eddies shows that eddies have a swift growing phase during the first 12 weeks and then a slow decaying phase that affects the eddy radii and eddy energy densities nevertheless vorticity has less variability in addition the effect of eddies on the thermocline and halocline is analyzed using 763 argo temperature profile data cyclonic eddies drive the thermocline shallower and thinner and significantly strengthen the thermocline intensity whereas anticyclonic eddies cause the thermocline to deepen and thicken and weaken the thermocline intensity to a certain degree the halocline impacted by cyclonic eddies is also shallower and thinner than that impacted by anticyclonic eddies finally eddy temporal variations are examined at seasonal and interannual scales eddy activity is sensitive to the wind stress curl and in the northern scs it is also related with the strength of the background flows

basal mechanics of ice streams insights from the stick slip motion of whillans ice stream west antarctica the downstream portion of whillans ice stream west antarctica moves primarily by stick slip motion the observation of stick slip motion suggests that the bed is governed by velocity weakening physics and that the basal physics is more unstable than suggested by laboratory studies the stick slip cycle of whilla s ice plain exhibits substantial variability in both the duration of sticky periods and in slip magnitude to understand this variability we modeled the forces acting on the ice stream during the stick phase of the stick slip cycle the ocean tides introduce changes in the rate at which stress is applied to the ice plain increased loading rates promote earlier failure and vice versa results show that the bed of whillans ice stream strengthens over time healing during the quiescent intervals in the stick slip cycle with the bed weakening during slip events the time dependent strengthening of the ice plain bed following termination of slip events indicates that the strength of the bed may vary by up to 0 35 kpa during the course of a single day copyright 2009 by the american geophysical union

mass changes of the greenland and antarctic ice sheets and shelves and contributions to sea level rise 1992 2002 changes in ice mass are estimated from elevation changes derived from 10 5 years greenland and 9 years antarctica of satellite radar altimetry data from the european remote sensing satellites ers 1 and 2 for the first time the dh dt values are adjusted for changes in surface elevation resulting from temperature driven variations in the rate of firn compaction the greenland ice sheet is thinning at the margins 42 2g t a 1 below the equilibrium line altitude ela and growing inland 53 2g t a 1 above the ela with a small overall mass gain 11 3g t a 1 0 03 mm a 1 sle sea level equivalent the ice sheet in west antarctica wa is losing mass 47 4g t a 1 and the ice sheet in east antarctica ea shows a small mass gain 16 11 gt a 1 for a combined net change of 31 12 gt a 1 0 08 mm a 1 sle the contribution of the three ice sheets to sea level is 0 05 0 03 mm a 1 t he antarctic ice shelves show corresponding mass changes of 95 11 gt a 1 in wa and 142 10 gt a 1 in ea thinning at the margins of the greenland ice sheet and growth at higher elevations is an expected response to increasing temperatures and precipitation in a warming climate the marked thinnings in the pine island and thwaites glacier basins of wa and the totten glacier basin in ea are probably ice dynamic responses to long term climate change and perhaps past removal of their adjacent ice shelves the ice growth in the southern antarctic peninsula and parts of ea may be due to increasing precipitation during the last century

discovery of till deposition at the grounding line of whillans ice stream we report on the discovery of a grounding line sedimentary wedge till delta deposited by whillans ice stream west antarctica our observation is that grounding line deposition serves to thicken the ice and stabilize the position of the grounding line the ice thickness at the grounding line is greater than that of floating ice in hydrostatic equilibrium thus the grounding line will tend to remain in the same location despite changes in sea level until sea level rises enough to overcome the excess thickness that is due to the wedge further our observation demonstrates the occurrence of rapid subglacial erosion sediment transport by distributed subglacial till deformation and grounding line sedimentation which have important implications for ice dynamics numerical modeling of ice flow and interpretation of the sedimentation record

an improved model for tidally modulated grounding line migration understanding grounding line dynamics is necessary for predictions of long term ice sheet stability however despite growing observations of the tidal influence on grounding line migration this short timescale migration is poorly understood with most modeling attempts assuming beam theory to calculate displacements here we present an improved model of tidal grounding line migration that treats migration as an elastic fracture problem forced by the additional ocean water pressure from the tide this new model predicts that the grounding line cannot be assumed to be in hydrostatic equilibrium and furthermore that migration is inherently asymmetric and nonlinear with migration distances that are not proportional to the tidal load specifically for constant surface slope the grounding line migrates upstream approximately ten times further as the tide rises from mean sea level to high tide than it migrates downstream as the tide falls from mean sea level to low tide and migration distances are substantially larger than simple flotation arguments suggest numerical tests also show that the dependence of migration distance on elastic moduli and ice sheet thickness are inconsistent with predictions of beam theory for a range of realistic values finally applying the new model to observations in antarctica results in new estimates of bed slopes though these estimates remain uncertain due to imperfect knowledge of the relevant rheological parameters