The “stop-and-go” kinematic Global Positioning System (GPS) technique was used to survey 270 stations twice within a 25 km by 10 km strain grid on the surface of Ice Stream B. One or two geodetic quality receivers operated as reference pivots, while two similar receivers traveled to grid stations. Each station was occupied for 25s. The method is rapid and reliable. Each survey was completed within 2 weeks. Calculated horizontal strain rates are accurate to 1%. Relative vertical velocities are accurate to 20 mm km1 a-1. Maps of the four horizontal velocity gradients, relative vertical velocity and surface elevation are presented. The vertical velocity pattern is used to identify the part of the topography that forms stationary waves and that which is migrating. No strong quantitative link is found between the pattern in horizontal strain rate and surface topography. In particular, there is no evidence that the topography is relaxing toward isostasy. None of the “weir-type” sticky spots, which are commonly observed with other glaciers, is found but there could be two of the “submerged-boulder type”, which cause lateral flow diversion. Evidence for “hot stripes” and zones of preferred crystal orientation is not found.

Ice-thickness changes at remote locations on ice sheets can be determined by means of precise Global Positioning System (GPS) surveys with interferometric solutions. Remote sites are precisely surveyed relative to GPS receivers on rock. Repeat observations of the position of a remote site provide its vertical velocity. The difference between this velocity and accumulation rate is an indicator of change in ice-sheet thickness. Allowance must be made for the movement of survey markers due to firn compaction and down-slope ice motion, To allow for firn compaction, very long- poles arc placed to a sufficient depth in the firn that the densification rate can be considered steady. This assumption may be tested by measurements with poles set to different depths. An analysis of errors in pilot studies indicates that the limit to precision is the determination of accumulation rate.

Field work for a geological map of the Convoy Range included mapping glaciers, moraines and surficial deposits. A range of glaciological indicators, including supraglacial and other moraines and margin morphology, has been used to assess the present equilibrium of the glaciers. Fields of rafted supraglacial moraine have accumulated over long periods of time at specific low-gradient, low-velocity locations. As the glacier regime changes, the shape of the moraine field distorts, signalling a change in flow pattern. By reversing the ice flow vectors directed at the moraine field, the directions from whence the debris came are shown. Unsorting the contortions of supraglacial moraine fields reveals the nature of the changes in glacier regime. Moraine-field configurations all suggest that local glaciers are expanding in response to higher local precipitation, estimated to have occurred between 2000 and 8000 year BP, most likely coincident with the world-wide “climatic optimum” of about 6000 year BP.

Ice-cliff morphology, fresh terminal moraines and boulder trains indicate that larger local glaciers are currently receding from a Holocene maximum, while the margin of the large Mackay Ice Sheet outlet glacier shows no evidence of recent recession and is probably close to its Holocene maximum. In contrast, areas of present snow cover are expanding, superimposing a recent positive balance (decades to hundreds of years), which has yet to reverse a general recession of mid- to high-altitude glaciers. Local hollows in some névé areas imply that glacier flow is not in equilibrium with snow accumulation.

The preferred orientation of ice crystals in polar ice sheets developsas a result of intracrystalline slip. Polycrystalline plasticity theory has been successfully used to simulate development of fabrics in rocks. In this study, we present a simpletheory for plastic deformation and fabric evolution. Each crystal within the aggregateis assumed to deform only by basal glide, and recrystallization processes are not directly taken into account. We have adopted the uniform stress bound, that is, stress is supposed to be homogeneous in the polycrystal. Simulated fabrics in uniaxial compression and tension are similar to those observed in ice sheets. In simple shear,simulations show that c axes rotate toward the direction of the maximal compression,in contradiction to the intuitive conclusion that stable orientations correspond to the easy glide position. But, these results are in agreement with predictions of Taylor theory and self-consistent approaches. We suggest that effects of vertical compression and/or rotation recrystallization are of great importance for fabric evolution in polarice sheets. The proposed model can reproduce viscosities of anisotropic ice samples tested in compression or tension but it is not able to reproduce the low viscosity of ices with a single-maximum fabric when tested in simple shear

The chemical stratigraphy of the surface firn of the central Filchner- Ronne Ice Shelf was determined in conjunction with stable isotopes from shallow firn cores and snow-pit samples collected at 1.1 widely distributed sites, and covering a time period of at least 20 years. The chemical analysis included ECM profiling and the determination of chloride, non-sea-salt (nss) sulphate, methanesulphonate (MSA), nitrate and, partly, sodium and bromide. Throughout the investigated area, winter time nss sulphate levels are found to be substantially negative, indicating that the sulphate to sodium ratio in airborne sea-salt particles is depleted by a factor of 5, approximately, in relation to the bulk sea-water ratio. While winter firn layers appear to be marked by episodic events of large sea-salt inputs, pronounced annual cycles with maxima in summer firn layers are commonly observed for the ECM signal and for nss sulphate, nitrate and MSA at all sites. For MSA, however, this phase relation is almost reversed for depths greater than 3-4m.

The mean impurity levels consistently are strongly depleted with increasing distance from the ice edge by about 30% / 100 km for sea salt, 25% / 100 km for MSA and only 10%/ 100 km for nss sulphate. However, no substantial trend is observed for nitrate. It is concluded, therefore, that the sea-salt and the biogenic sulphur compounds deposited on the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf mainly originate from the adjacent Weddell Sea.

Further important implications of the continental effects are: (a) an atmospheric residence time of nss sulphate apparently exceeding that of MSA probably due to the supplementary sulphate production on the ice shelf from biogenic SO2, and (b) a substantial limitation of the potential of deep ice cores already drilled on the Filchner- Ronne Ice Shelf in extracting reliable net temporal changes of sea-salt and biogenic sulphur species.

A new assessment is made of the possible range of responses of the Antarctic ice sheet to future global warming by performing a series of sensitivity tests to prescribed climatic forcing with an ice-sheet model. The model includes thermodynamics; it is three-dimensional, with 20 km horizontal grid spacing and 30 points in the vertical, and it treats the ice shelves explicitly. To obtain an appropriate initial present state for the ice sheet, it has been necessary to perform a series of simulations through the last glacial cycle with prescribed forcing including accumulation, sea level are less importantly climatic temperature. For the future climatic forcing, General Circulation Model simulations have been used with particular concern for the changes in the sea-ice cover and ocean warming. Effects of progressive changes have been examined with increases of basal-melt rates up to 10 m a1, surface annual mean temperatures by up to 7°C and surface-accumulation rates to double the present values. Without additional accumulation, the increased basal melt of 10 m a-1 would greatly reduce the ice shelves and contribute to sea-level rise of 0.3 m in 100 years and over 0.6 m by 500 years. The additional accumulation counteracts this to dive about zero change by 100 years and -1.2 m by 500 years.

Water-temperature structure in the Cosmonaut Sea at 60 68° S, 35 65° E in 1987–92 shows that cold water with a temperature below -1.5°C was present in the coastal region. The Circumpolar Deep Water with a temperature higher than 1.0°C was found below about 150m depth from northeast to northwest of the cold water area. The SSM/I images in 1987–91 indicate that polynya activities were intensive in 1988 and the typical Cosmonaut Polynya was observed; due to weaker activities, the small and sporadic Cosmonaut Polynya formed in 1987, 1989, 1990 and 1991. A coastal polynya was frequently observed every year at about 66° S, 50–60° E. A train of polynyas to the east of Cosmonaut Polynya often appeared. It is considered that the Atmospheric Convergence Line and Antarctic Divergence Region are responsible for polynya activities in the Cosmonaut Sea.

The ice cap on Berkner Island is grounded on bedrock within the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf and is, therefore, expected to be a well-suited place to retrieve long-term ice-core records reflecting the environmental situation of the Weddell Sea region. Shallow firn cores were drilled to 11 m at the two main summits of Berkner Island and analysed in high depth resolution for electrical d.c. conductivity(ECM), stable isotopes, chloride, sulphate, nitrate and methane-sulphonate (MSA).From the annual layering of δD and non-sea-salt (nss) sulphate, a mean annual snow accumulation of 26.6 cm water at the north dome and 17.4cm water at the south domeare obtained. As a result of ineffective wind scouring indicated by a relatively lownear-surface snow density, regular annual cycles are found for all species at least in the upper 4-5 m. Post-depositional changes are responsible for a substantial decrease o[the seasonal δD and nitrate amplitude as well as for considerable migration of the MSA signal operating below a depth of 3-4 m. The mean chemical and isotopic firn properties at the south dome correspond to the situation on the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf at a comparable distance to the coast, whereas the north dome is found to be much more influenced by maritime air masses. Persistent high sea-salt levels in winter snow at Berkner Island heavily obscure the determination of nss sulphate probably due to sulphate fractionation in the Antarctic sea-salt aerosol. Estimated time-scale spredict ages at 400 m depth to be ~2000 years for the north and ~3000 years for the south dome. Pleistocene ice is expected in the bottom 200 and 300 m, respectively.

A combination of image-based velocity mapping techniques and finite-element modeling has been used to study a part of the southern shear margin of Ice Stream D, Antarctica. The study area is a region over which the margin shows considerable development morphologically, where a new southern margin is forming in response to an abrupt increase in ice-stream width just upstream of the study area. A series of ice-speed profiles perpendicular to the margin was determined by semiautomated displacement measurements of small ice features in sequential Landsat TM images. Transverse speed gradients ∂u/∂y of these profiles were determined by calculating the slope of a high-order polynomial fit to the speed profiles. Maximum ice speed and ∂u/∂y increase dramatically as the margin develops in the downstream direction, from 420 to 670 mal,and from 0.02 to 0.16 a, respectively. Finite-element modeling of the upstream and downstream profiles suggests that a considerable change occurs in the stiffness of the ice in the marginal zone between the two profiles, and in the stiHness or amount of sliding in the basal layer underlying the margin. Ice in the downstream profile appears to have marginal zones of softer ice in which shear strain is concentrated and uniformly low resistance to deformation in the bed. For the upstream profile, modeling suggests that the ice is not softened near the margin and that the bed is stiffer near the margin. Model-based calculations suggest that the bed shear is responsible for 69% of the resistance to flow in the upstream margin area;this value is 51 % in the downstream area.

Three satellite images of the northern Larsen Ice Shelf arc used to derive velocity fields for the periods 1975–86 and 1986 89. Substantial increases in the speed of the ice between these periods are detected to a high degree of confidence. Ice which entered the ice shelf between Fothergill Point and Cape Worsley and ice from Drygalski Glacier has accelerated by approximately 15% over the measurement period. Ice from Bombardier and Dinsmoor Glaciers also exhibits acceleration but by a lesser amount. These accelerations may be the result of either significant retreat experienced by the ice shelf during this period or warming in the Antarctic Peninsula region. Velocities measured by surface survey over a 15 d period in 1991 indicate a slower velocity than the image-derived velocities in the limited region of overlap. These differences appear to be systematic and may be the result of uncontrolled errors in the surface survey. Limited control of one image could also contribute to some of these differences.

Surface elevations collected by airborne radar arc interpolated between flight lines using Landsat I'M image data to produce a detailed digital elevation model of a part of Ice Stream C, West Antarctica. The photodinometric method developed is general and allows the derivation of surface elevation along any line parallel to the solar illumination from a single known elevation on that line. Accuracies of the derived elevations are improved with additional elevation control that permits an empirical determination of parameters in the photoclinometric equation accounting for albedo and atmospheric scattering. Elevation errors increase approximately linearly with the integration distance. An explicit relationship is derived that shows the image brightness is insensitive to the cross-Sun component of small surface slopes typical of ice sheets. The greatest impediment to the accuracy of this technique is the radiance resolution of the sensor which limits the signal-to-noise ratio of the image data and can mask variations in albedo that are falsely converted to variations in surface slope.

A model of the Antarctic ice sheet has been used to simulate the ice sheet in warmer climates, in order to investigate what kind of ice-sheet geometries one can reasonably expect under what kind of climatic conditions and to discover which physical mechanisms may be involved to explain them. The results of these experiments reveal the considerable stability of; in particular, the East Antarctic ice sheet. It would require a temperature rise of between 17 and 20 K above present levels to remove this ice sheet from the subglacial basins in the interior of the continent and of 25 K to melt down the Antarctic ice sheet completely. For a temperature rise below 5 K, the model actually predicts a larger Antarctic ice sheet than today as a result of increased snowfall, whereas the west Antarctic ice sheet was round not to survive temperatures more than 8–10 K above present values. Furthermore, basal temperature conditions in these experiments point to the problems involved in raising the base of the ice sheet to the pressure-melting point over the large areas necessary to consider the possibility of sliding instability. These results bear on a lively debate regarding the late Cenozoic glacial history of Antarctica. Particularly, based on these findings, it is difficult to reconcile a highly variable East Antarctic ice sheet until the Pliocene with modest warming recorded in, for instance, the deep-sea records for the late Neogene.

The accumulation of drifting snow around buildings in regions of severe climate has important implications on their design and location. This paper studies one such building, at a station run by the British Antarctic Survey and located on the Brunt Ice Shelf at the edge of the Antarctic continent. Four previous stations have been built in the area, the buildings of which were designed to become covered in snow and all have been crushed within a few years. The current station, Halley V, consists of three buildings which are all raised from the ice shelf by means of legs. They were designed in such a way that the action of the wind blowing underneath the buildings would keep them-clear of snow.

This paper describes a model which predicts the shape and position of drift formation, and then compares the results with those observed at Halley. This model is a first attempt to address the problem and as such the paper can be considered to be a progress report; improvements arc currently being made as part of continuing research. It is found that there is some qualitative agreement and possible reasons for a few quantitative discrepancies are discussed. Both the model and the true data show clearly that the new design is very effective in prolonging the useful life of the buildings.

A satellite-image map with surface-elevation contours of Filchner Ronne Ice Shelf has been published previously as a topographic map. The image map was constructed from a mosaic of 69 Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS) images and NOAA AVHRR data. The standard deviation in position in the central part of the mosaic is ±125m. Topographic-glaciologic features were taken from Landsat scenes and represent the best coastline of this region. Surface elevations have been calculated from airborne and ground measurements of either ice thickness (by assuming hydrostatic equilibrium) or barometric pressure. Accuracies vary from ±2 to ±7 m, Oversnow trigonometric levelling in the northeastern part of the ice shelf, tied to sea level at the ice front, has given accuracies of ± 1m. Accuracies reduce to about ±20 m in the grounded ice areas,

ERS-I radar-altimeter data over the ice shelf have been processed to give ellipsoidal heights elevation above the ellipsoid), Geoidal reductions have been used to convert these to orthometric heights (elevation above sea level). No tidal corrections have been applied. The overall accuracy of the radar-altimeter-derived elevations is estimated to be better than ±5m. There are noticeable differences from the topographic map in the central part where the radar data indicate a lower surface. However, the maps agree to within the stated error figures.

Seismic measurements of ice- and water column thickness have been made on Rudard Ice Stream where it joins the Ronne Ice Shelf. Assuming that the ice is in hydrostatic equilibrium, these values have been used to calculate sea-bed elevations. A sea-bed trough more than 2 km below sea level along the western margin continues downstream from the grounded to the floating ice.

The launch of ERS-l provides coverage, by satellite altimetry, of a large part of the Ross Ice Shelf ineluding areas of input from Byrd Glacier and Ice Streams D and E. Five 35 d repeats of fast-delivery data, comprising approximately 100000 height estimates, have been used to produce a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the Ross Icc Shelf north of 81.5° S. Careful filtering of the altimeter data, which removed about 30% of the measurements, ensured that only valid values were used. The data were grldded to produce a DEM with a cell size of 10km. Repeatability of the data was assessed from an analysis of crossing points of ascending and descending tracks. The rms cross-over difference for the ice shelf was 0.94 m. Using the five repeat tracks gave a random error of 0.30 m for an averaged height measurement. Regionally correlated errors in the orbit and geoid add a systematic long wavelength bias of approximately 2m to the final elevation estimate. Two of the latest geoid models, OSU91-A and JGMI, were compared with the available in situ data and hYdrostatic models based on ice and water densities.

The altimetry was compared with ice-thickness data from Ross Icc Shelf Geophysical and Glaciological Survey (RIGGS) stations and Scott Polar Research Institute radio-echo-sounding surveys undertaken in the 1970s. Differences between the DEM and heights calculated from ice thicknesses and a standard density -depth equation lie, in general, within the combined measurement errors. There are, however, several areas where this is not the case. Prominent north-south stripes of different ice thickness shown on a RIGGS map apparently do not exist. Low elevations are associated with high-density ice draining from East Antarctic outlet glaciers. The grounding line of Icc Streams D and E and an ice plain behind it are clearly demarcated by the break in surface slope. Grounded ice north of Steershead is also observed

About 1200 km of surface-based radio-echo sounding (RES) profiles were measured during the German Antarctic field season 1989-90 on the Filchner Ronne Ice Shelf (FRIS), Antarctica, with a 40 MHz monopulse sounder developed in Münster. In the area investigated, downstream of Doake Ice Rumples and Henry Ice Rise, a basal layer of marine ice up to 400 m thick was found below the meteoric ice, which is less than 100 m thick in some places. High absorption losses and low bottom reflectivity of the basal layer prevented sounding of the total ice thickness, except for areas near the ice edge with strong melting.

From common mid-point (CMP) measurements, the velocities of electromagnetic waves in the ice shelf were determined, to obtain precise depths from travel times for airborne and surface-based soundings.

The continuous profiling yielded the total ice thickness in the northern part and a variety of internal structures, including lavers in the meteoric and the marine ice, remnants of crevasses, varying reflections of the meteoric-marine interface reflection (MMR). From these data, it is shown that the most-disturbed MMR signatures originate at grounding zones at Doake lee Rumples and at both sides of Henry Ice Rise. The status of the meteoric ice bottom is preserved by the formation of marine ice. Hence, structures remain widely unchanged over 400 km of flow. Internal features that can be correlated on parallel profiles perpendicular to the flow provide an independent means for the construction of flow lines. Even in areas with a smooth MMR, reflection amplitudes show variations by a factor of 2. Their spatial frequency is maximal on profiles prependicular to the now direction. A possible explanation for the amplitude variations is the varying salinity of the top of the marine ice.

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.

During the German Antarctic Expedition field season 1989–90. hotwater drilling was undertaken on the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf (FRIS) at 77° S 52°c W to investigate the temperature-depth profile and the bottom-melting rate, which arc significant parameters for mass- and energy-balance studies of the ice shelf. Remeasurements of installed chains in 1991-92 yie1ded reliable results.

Taking glaciological, geodetic and geophysical data on a flowline through the central part of FRIS. we developed a two-dimensional thermal model to reconstruct the measurernents from a steady-state temperature depth profile about 550 km upstream on Möllereisstrom. Considering mass and energy conservation, a basal layer of 350 m of marine ice was calculated with thermal properties, depending on salinity and temperature. In areas with strong basal freezing, almost isothermal depth profiles in the marine ice layer are derived. Further downstream, in areas of basal melting, a nearly cubic temperarure-depth profile is observed.

Oceanographic data have been obtained from beneath the Ronne Ice Shelf at a site on the southeastern side of a sea-floor trough, the Ronne Depression. The data consist of 5 d of conductivity temperature depth (CTD) profiling and a long-term temperature record from a thermistor cable. The water column was found to be composed of two layers: a cold buoyant layer of lce Shelf Water (ISW) overlying a layer of unmodified Western Shelf Water (WSW).

A change in the water column was observed on the last day of profiling, the WSW layer thinning, a cold intrusion appearing directly above the WSW and the ISW becoming colder. In addition, on three profiles the ISW cooled further and increased in salinity, becoming apparently statically unstable. The temperature record from the thermistor cable confirms that the ISW layer occasionally becomes colder. with greater variation in temperature than seen on the CTD profiles. These low temperatures and high salinities arc interpreted as indicating that water containing ice crystals in suspension has been advected beneath the site.