Abstract
Climate shifts are particularly conspicuous in glaciated areas. Satellite and terrestrial observations show significant increases in the melting and breakup of tidewater glaciers and their influence on sea level rise and ocean mixing. Increasing melt rates are creating an urgency to better understand the link between atmospheric and oceanic conditions and glacier frontal ablation through iceberg calving and melting. Elucidating this link requires a combination of short- and long-timescale measurements of terminus activity. Recent work has demonstrated the potential of using underwater sound to quantify the time and scale of calving events to yield integrated estimates of ice mass loss (Glowacki and Deane, 2020). Here, we present estimates of subaerial calving flux using underwater sound recorded at Hansbreen, Svalbard, in September 2013 combined with an algorithm for the automatic detection of calving events. The method is compared with ice calving volumes estimated from geodetic measurements of the movement of the glacier terminus and an analysis of satellite images. The total volume of above-water calving during the 26 d of acoustical observation is estimated to be 1.7 +/- 0.7 x 10^7 m^3, whereas the subaerial calving flux estimated by traditional methods is 7 +/- 2 x 10^6 m^3. The results suggest that passive cryoacoustics is a viable technique for long-term monitoring of mass loss from marine-terminating glaciers.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 4447-4461 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | The Cryosphere |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 20 Oct 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Fancial support: This research has been supported by the Ministry of Education and Science, Poland (subsidy for the Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, and grant no. 1621/MOB/V/2017/0), the National Science Centre, Poland (grant nos. 2021/43/D/ST10/00616 and 2011/03/B/ST10/04275), the Centre for Polar Studies, University of Silesia, the U.S. Office of Naval Research, Ocean Acoustics Division (grant no. N00014-17-1-2633), the U.S. National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs (grant no. OPP-1748265), and Research Council of Norway (Arctic Field Grant, RIS ID: 6133).Funding
This research has been supported by the Ministry of Education and Science, Poland (subsidy for the Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, and grant no. 1621/MOB/V/2017/0), the National Science Centre, Poland (grant nos. 2021/43/D/ST10/00616 and 2011/03/B/ST10/04275), the Centre for Polar Studies, University of Silesia, the U.S. Office of Naval Research, Ocean Acoustics Division (grant no. N00014-17-1-2633), the U.S. National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs (grant no. OPP-1748265), and Research Council of Norway (Arctic Field Grant, RIS ID: 6133).
