Precipitation at 2050 m on Blue Glacier, U.S.A., was measured daily from August 1957 through July 1958. Its correlation with a nearby lowland station with a good, long-term (1914–96) record is used to estimate precipitation on the glacier over that entire period. Average annual precipitation on Blue Glacier is 4500 mm w.e. Snowfall depends on the joint distribution of precipitation and temperature. Over the period 1948–96, for which twice-daily radiosonde observations are available, temperature at any elevation on the glacier is interpolated in the radiosonde profile to partition the precipitation as either rain or snow. Daily partitioning is preferred, especially during spring and autumn storms when averaging over longer periods may substantially under- or overestimate snowfall on the glacier. Prior to 1948, snowfall is estimated from the mean over 1948–96, in a particular month and elevation, of the fraction of the precipitation falling as snow. The standard error in the October–May snowfall at 2100 m is estimated to be 250 mm w.e. during the radiosonde era (1948–96) and 350 mm prior to that. For the first 10 years or so after mass-balance measurements began at Blue Glacier (1957), precipitation increased and winter temperature at 850 mbar (about 1450 m) decreased, but since then the trends have reversed. The combined effect, increasing snowfall until 1965 and decreasing since, closely parallels measured mass changes of Blue Glacier. When the average vertical profile of total annual snowfall is subjected to a hypothetical 1 K warming, the resulting reduction in snowfall is greatest at the glacier terminus and decreases up-glacier; the average over the entire glacier is 300 mm w.e.

Of several problems associated with theoretical explanations of the jökulhlaups which emerge from the outlet glacier Skeiðarárjökull of the ice cap Vatnajökull in southeast Iceland, the mechanism of flood initiation is one that has hitherto defied explanation. We provide such an explanation based on a careful analysis of the classical Nye-Röthlisberger model; near the subglacial lake Grímsvötn, the hydraulic potential gradient is towards the lake, and there is therefore a catchment boundary under the ice, whose location depends on the subglacial meltwater drainage characteristics. As the conditions for a flood approach, we show that the water divide migrates towards the lake, while at the same time the lake pressure increases. When the hydraulic potential gradient towards the lake is low and the refilling rate is slow, the seal will "break" when the catchment boundary reaches the lake, while the lake level is still below flotation pressure, whereas if refilling is rapid, flotation can be achieved before a flood is initiated. This theory can thus explain why the seal is normally broken when the lake level at Grímsvötn is still some 60 m below flotation level. In addition, we are able to explain why the jökulhlaup following the 1996 eruption did not occur until flotation level was achieved, and we show how the cyclicity and magnitude of jökulhlaups can be explained within this theory.

The elastic stress intensity factor is a parameter used in fracture mechanics to describe stress conditions in the vicinity of the tip of a sharp crack. By superimposing solutions of stress intensity factors for different loading conditions, equations are derived which model crevasses in ice. Solutions are presented for the theoretical depth of isolated crevasses, free from or partially filled with water. Close agreement exists with a previous calculation by Weertman using a different technique. The effect of crevasse spacing is investigated and it is demonstrated that closer spacing always reduces crevasse depth, but over a wide range of spacing the predicted variation in depth is slight.

Laboratory tests on sediment over-ridden by the last ice sheet in north-western Germany reveal very low ice-induced pre-consolidation and high palaeo-pore-water pressures. Sediment consolidation at the base of the glacier was largely controlled by hydraulic properties of the substratum. Generally low permeabilities of the bed caused sustained high pore-water pressure in over-ridden sediments close to the flotation point. This implies a serious possibility of hydraulic lifting of the ice sheet. It is believed that the reduced basal coupling limited the transformation of glacier shear stress on to the bed sediments, which is indicated by a lack of sedimentological evidence for widespread pervasive bed deformation. Ice motion was probably focused at the glacier sole by some combination of sliding and ploughing. However, isolated spots with deformation occur, so that the subglacial system in the study area can be characterized as a stable/deforming mosaic.

Supraglacial streams are a significant part of the glacial hydrological system and important for understanding glacial hydrology and dynamics. Here we infer factors that influence the long-term development of perennial supraglacial streams, particularly in reference to canyon, incised and surface stream formation. Orthophotos and digital elevation models generated from high-resolution aerial imagery taken with unmanned aerial vehicles or piloted helicopters between 2010 and 2017 were used to compare seven streams on Fountain Glacier, Bylot Island, Canada over time. Results show canyon formation occurs from a combination of fluvial processes and the impact of solar radiation. The greater the discharge or slope, the faster the incision and higher the sinuosity. With greater sinuosity, the distance between the top of the valley banks increases, and cutoffs cause trapezoidal canyon-like valleys to form. Solar radiation causes the backward migration of the valley walls, further enhancing canyon area. Canyons are less likely to occur in areas of low discharge and slope. Less incised channels are also more likely to have water flow jumping the channel banks, changing the channel path. The presence of medial moraines and crevasses also increases rerouting of small streams. Lastly, windblown created snow-plugs may lead to stream diversion.

We report impedance measurements of the complex dielectric permittivity ε = ε′ − jε″ of sea ice and laboratory-grown NaCl single crystals using 50 MHz Stevens Water Monitoring Systems Hydra Probes. Temperature cycling of the single-crystal samples shows hydrohalite precipitation, and hysteresis in ε′ and ε″ qualitatively consistent with the expected evolution of brine-inclusion microstructure. Measurements parallel and perpendicular to intra-crystalline brine layers show weak (<10%) anisotropy in ε′ and a 20–40% difference in ε″ due to enhanced d.c. conductivity along the layers. Measurements in landfast, first-year ice near Barrow, Alaska, USA, indicate brine motion in warming ice as the brine volume fraction vb increases above 5%. Plots of vb derived from salinity profiles against ε′ and ε″ for these and previous measurements display too much variability between datasets for unguided inversion of vb. Contributing to this variability are intrinsic microstructural dependence, uncertainties in vb, and sub-representative sample volumes. A standard model of sea-ice permittivity is inverted to derive the apparent brine-inclusion aspect ratio and bulk d.c. conductivity at a spatial scale complementary to previous measurements. We assess Hydra Probe performance in high-salinity environments and conclude that they are not generally suited for autonomous sea-ice salinity measurements, partly due to the range of relevant brine pocket inclusion length scales.

Ice flow numerical models are essential for predicting the evolution of ice sheets in a warming climate. Recent research emphasizes the need for higher-order and even full-Stokes flow models, instead of the traditional shallow-ice approximation, whose assumptions are not valid in certain critical areas. These higher-order models are, however, computationally intensive and difficult to use at the continental scale. Here we present a new technique, the Tiling method, to couple ice flow models of varying orders of complexity. The goal of the method is to limit the spatial extent of where higherorder models are applied to reduce the computational cost, while maintaining the model precision. We apply this method on synthetic geometries to demonstrate its practical use. We first use a geometry for which all models yield the same results to check the consistency of the method. Then we apply our method to a geometry for which a full-Stokes model is required in the vicinity of the ice front. Our results show that the hybrid models present significant improvements over mono-model approaches and reduce computational times.

From 1999 to 2001 a 724 m deep ice core was drilled on Akademii Nauk ice cap, Severnaya Zemlya, to gain high-resolution proxy data from the central Russian Arctic. Despite strong summertime meltwater percolation, this ice core provides valuable information on the regional climate and environmental history. We present data of stable water isotopes, melt-layer content and major ions from the uppermost 57 m of this core, covering the period 1883–1998. Dating was achieved by counting seasonal isotopic cycles and using reference horizons. Multi-annual δ18O values reflect Eurasian sub-Arctic and Arctic surface air-temperature variations. We found strong correlations to instrumental temperature data from some stations (e.g. r = 0.62 for Vardø, northern Norway). The δ18O values show pronounced 20th-century temperature changes, with a strong rise about 1920 and the absolute temperature maximum in the 1930s. A recent decrease in the deuterium-excess time series indicates an increasing role of the Kara Sea as a regional moisture source. From the multi-annual ion variations we deduced decreasing sea-salt aerosol trends in the 20th century, as reflected by sodium and chloride, whereas sulphate and nitrate are strongly affected by anthropogenic pollution.

Discharge and water temperature measurements in the Skaftá river and measurements of the lowering of the ice over the subglacial lake at the western Skaftá cauldron, Vatnajökull, Iceland, were made during a rapidly rising glacial outburst flood (jökulhlaup) in September 2006. Outflow from the lake, flood discharge at the glacier terminus and the transient subglacial volume of floodwater during the jökulhlaup are derived from these data. The 40 km long initial subglacial path of the jökulhlaup was mainly formed by lifting and deformation of the overlying ice, induced by water pressure in excess of the ice overburden pressure. Melting of ice due to the heat of the floodwater from the subglacial lake and frictional heat generated by the dissipation of potential energy in the flow played a smaller role. Therefore this event, like other rapidly rising jökulhlaups, cannot be explained by the jökulhlaup theory of Nye (1976). Instead, our observations indicate that they can be explained by a coupled subglacial-sheet–conduit mechanism where essentially all of the initial flood path is formed as a sheet by the propagation of a subglacial pressure wave.

This paper presents two methods for glacier monitoring on Svalbard using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite images. Both methods were developed on glaciers in the Kongsfjorden area. The first method monitors the firn area extent and the firn line over time by thresholding and filtering the SAR image. Manual detection of the threshold is preferable, but using a constant threshold for all images also gives adequate results. A retreat of the firn-line position is visible, especially on Kongsvegen, corresponding to consecutive years of negative mass balance. The second method applies a k-means classification to three clusters on the glacier surface. The areal extent of the resulting class on the upper part of the glacier correlates remarkably well with the independently measured mass balance of Kongsvegen, having a correlation coefficient of around 0.89 for the various glaciers. This is because the snow from the accumulation area influences the k-means classification. Thus, on glaciers where mass-balance values are available, new mass-balance values can be predicted solely from SAR images. For glaciers where no mass balance is available, the area change cannot be calibrated to absolute mass-balance values, but relative changes can be predicted.

During the snowmelt period in 1998, air-temperature data were acquired at 1 min intervals using different measurement systems as part of a field campaign in the Kärkevagge, Swedish Lapland. A comparison reveals that temperatures from naturally ventilated sensors exceed temperatures from aspirated sensors by as much as 6.2 K. Errors in temperature are closely connected to high values of upwelling shortwave radiation and are larger in periods of low wind speed. Measurement errors result from the instantaneous radiation conditions and propagate over the next measurements due to slow response time of the naturally ventilated sensor. A physically based method is developed for correcting temperature data influenced by radiation errors, which requires additional measurements of wind speed and upwelling shortwave radiation. Coefficients of the correction formula are automatically determined from the erroneous temperature data, so the method is independent of accurate air-temperature measurements. The high quality of the correction method could be validated by accurate psychrometer measurements. One of the most important applications is the computation of sensible-heat fluxes from snow-covered surfaces during the snowmelt period using the bulk-aerodynamic method, which is greatly improved by the new correction method.

A mathematical model is presented for the stability of sheet flow of water beneath a temperate glacier. Enhanced viscous heat dissipation in thick parts of the sheet tends to make sheet flow unstable, the instability increasing as sheet thickness and pressure gradient increase. However, incipient channels may be destroyed as the glacier slides over protuberances on its bed. Quasi-stable sheet flow may be possible for sheets up to several millimeters in thickness, especially beneath glaciers that have relatively gentle surface slopes and slide at moderate to high speeds. Such water sheets may somewhat reduce the effective roughness of glacier beds, but probably not enough to allow surge initiation. Furthermore, the presence of numerous water-filled cavities at the glacier bed will tend to reduce the sheet thickness and lessen the degree of “lubrication” of the glacier bed by the water sheet.

Englacial layers in Antarctica and Greenland are indicators of the dynamic, rheological and subglacial configuration of the ice sheets. Airborne radar sounder data is the primary remote sensing solution for directly observing englacial layers and structures at the glacier-catchment to ice-sheet scale. However, when traditional along-track synthetic aperture radar (SAR) processing is applied, steep layers can disappear, limiting the detectability and interpretability of englacial layer geometry. This study provides a reconstruction algorithm to address the problem of destructive phase interference during the radargram formation. We develop and apply a novel SAR processor optimized for layer detection that enhances the Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR) of specular reflectors. The algorithm also enables the automatic estimation of layer slope. We demonstrate the algorithm using data acquired at the Institute Ice Stream, West Antarctica.

Relatively little is known about the physical mechanisms that drive the dynamics of the East Antarctic outlet glaciers. Here we conduct a remote-sensing investigation of the Polar Record Glacier (PRG), East Antarctica to analyze its ice flow acceleration, ice front variations and ice surface melting. Ice flow speeds at PRG increased by up to 15% from 2005 to 2015, with substantial interannual fluctuations. The ice velocities also showed seasonal variations, accelerating by up to 9% between September and January. Multiple mechanisms contribute to the observed seasonal variations: the initial acceleration may result from the lost back-stress provided by the sea ice in the austral spring and the later speedup relate to the surface meltwater that leads to weakened ice shelf and shear margins. The sensitivity of the PRG to oceanic forcing is confirmed by comparing the secular ice velocity increases with ocean temperatures. These measurements suggest that the dynamics of East Antarctic ice shelves are sensitive to melt at both the surface and base, at a range of timescales.

The relationship between supraglacial lateral moraines and lateral dump moraines at Arolla. Switzerland, is discussed. A detailed study of the lateral moraines of glacier de Tsidjiore Nouve reveals their complex form (as superimposed and nested ridges) and the current mode of development (possibly related to the passage of a kinematic wave). Sedimentological analysis indicates that much of the constituent debris is of supraglacial origin; it is transported either directly from the base of slopes flanking the Pigne d’Arolla ice-fall or via englacial septa comprising marginal sediment incorporated in the accumulation zone. A calculation of the volume of debris in the lateral moraines suggests that glacier de Tsidjiore Nouve has recently been more active in transporting and depositing supraglacial debris than in glacial erosion sensu stricto.

Stable isotopes of water (δ18O and δ2H) were measured in the debris-laden ice underlying an Antarctic blue ice moraine, and in adjoining Law Glacier in the central Transantarctic Mountains. Air bubble content and morphology were assessed in shallow ice core samples. Stable isotope measurements plot either on the meteoric waterline or are enriched from it. The data cluster in two groups: the ice underlying the moraine has a δ2H:δ18O slope of 5.35 ± 0.92; ice from adjoining portions of Law Glacier has a slope of 6.69 ± 1.39. This enrichment pattern suggests the moraine's underlying blue ice entrained sediment through refreezing processes acting in an open system. Glaciological conditions favorable to warm-based sediment entrainment occur 30–50 km upstream. Basal melting and refreezing are further evidenced by abundant vapor figures formed from internal melting of the ice crystals. Both the moraine ice and Law Glacier are sufficiently depleted of heavy isotopes that their ice cannot be sourced locally, but instead must be derived from far-field interior regions of the higher polar plateau. Modeled ice flow speeds suggest the ice must be at least 80 ka old, with Law Glacier's ice possibly dating to OIS 5 and moraine ice older still.

Repeat airborne laser altimeter measurements are used to derive surface elevation changes on parts of Whillans Ice Stream and Ice Stream C, West Antarctica. Elevation changes are converted to estimates of ice equivalent thickness change using local accumulation rates, surface snow densities and vertical bedrock motions. The surveyed portions of two major tributaries of Whillans Ice Stream are found to be thinning almost uniformly at an average rate of ∼1 m a−1. Ice Stream C has a complicated elevation-change pattern, but is generally thickening. These results are used to estimate the contribution of each surveyed region to the current rate of global sea-level rise.

We show that it is possible to extract a high-resolution (annual) paleoclimate record from the surface of a blue-ice area (BIA). The variability of the surface stable-isotope values suggests that almost all the surface ice in Scharffenbergbotnen BIA, East Antarctica, is of Holocene age. The isotopic changes across the BIA show that the modern climate there is warmer than the climate in the early-Holocene optimum (11 kyr BP). A volume-conserving ice flow model for the BIA constrained by isotopic variability and layer thicknesses, and a series of 14C ages indicate both that the BIA has been smaller than now, and that the surface velocities were considerably smaller during the Last Glacial Maximum. Changes in ice-sheet thickness drive the BIA towards present-day conditions. The relatively young age of the majority of the BIA also explains the lack of meteorite finds in this area, and may be typical for many BIAs in low-elevation nunatak areas.