Project Title

NSFGEO-NERC: Investigating the direct influence of meltwater on Antarctic Ice Sheet dynamics

Summary

Event Number:
I-347-E
NSF / OPP Award 2053169

Program Director:
Dr. Kelly Brunt

ASC POC/Implementer:
Allison Barden / Diane Hutt

Principal Investigator(s)

Dr. Jonathan Kingslake
j.kingslake@columbia.edu
Columbia University
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
New York, New York

Project Web Site:
https://ldeo-glaciology.github.io/AntPen_NSF_NERC/

Location

Supporting Stations: Special Project
Research Locations: Flask Glacier

Description

Surface melting is widespread in Antarctica and predicted to increase significantly as Antarctica warms. This United States/United Kingdom project will take steps toward understanding and predicting these changes. The team will test three hypotheses: 1) Short-term changes in ice velocity indicated by satellite data result from surface meltwater reaching the bed of outlet glaciers in the Antarctic Peninsula; 2) This is widespread in Antarctica today; and 3) This results in a measurable increase in mean annual ice discharge. In addition to the fieldwork described below, the team will conduct a continent-wide remote sensing survey using synthetic aperture radar and multi-spectral imagery to comprehensively map meltwater on grounded ice and short-term velocity variations.

Field Season Overview

This project is in conjunction with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) with three seasons of field work scheduled in 2024-25, 2025-26, and 2026-27 for installation, maintenance, and removal of survey equipment respectively. Fieldwork will be conducted on Flask Glacier on the Antarctic Peninsula deploying GNSS, passive seismometers, Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS), Automatic Weather Stations (AWS), and ice-penetrating radar. For the 2024-25 season, the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP) support will involve cargo and grantee travel support. Cargo will be shipped to Punta Arenas, Chile and transferred to BAS. BAS will then handle the cargo transportation to Rothera Station and into the field.

One USAP participant will deploy via the USAP travel system to Punta Arenas, Chile before flying to Rothera Station and joining the field team including BAS field guides. Field gear and camp rations will also be supplied by BAS. From Nov 2024 - Jan 2025 the team will install equipment (i.e., dGNSS systems, ApRES systems, thermistor strings, passive seismic and an AWS) at Flask Glacier. The team will conduct maintenance to raise and collect data from installed instruments in 2025-26 and will return in the 2026-27 field season to collect instruments during retrograde. During the first two seasons, the team will deploy a fixed-wing UAS equipped with single-frequency GNSS and an SLR camera on repeat flights along a ~ 40-km round-trip survey grid.

Deploying Team Members