Antarctic ice velocities from GPS locations logged by seismic stations

Abstract In 2007–08, seismologists began deploying passive seismic stations over much of the Antarctic ice sheet. These stations routinely log their position by navigation-grade global positioning system (GPS) receivers. This location data can be used to track the stations situated on moving ice. For stations along the traverse from Zhongshan station to Dome A in East Antarctica and at the West Antarctic Ice Sheet divide the estimated velocities of the ice surface based on positions recorded by navigation-grade GPS are consistent with those obtained by high-accuracy geodetic GPS. Most of the estimated velocities have an angle difference of <28° with the steepest downhill vector of the ice surface slope at the stations. These results indicate that navigation-grade GPS measurements over several months provide reliable information on ice sheet movement of ≥1 m yr-1. With an uncertainty of ~0.3–1 m yr-1, this method is able to resolve both very slow ice velocities near Dome A and velocities of >100 m yr-1 on Thwaites Glacier. Information on ice velocity at three locations for which no data from satellite-based interferometric synthetic aperture radar are available have also been provided using this method.

[1]  R. Armstrong,et al.  The Physics of Glaciers , 1981 .

[2]  C. J. P. P. Smeets,et al.  Large and Rapid Melt-Induced Velocity Changes in the Ablation Zone of the Greenland Ice Sheet , 2008, Science.

[3]  Mass balance of the Lambert Glacier basin, East Antarctica , 2002 .

[4]  Li Yuansheng,et al.  Ice velocity from static GPS observations along the transect from Zhongshan station to Dome A, East Antarctica , 2008, Annals of Glaciology.

[5]  Bo Sun,et al.  Bedmap2: improved ice bed, surface and thickness datasets for Antarctica , 2012 .

[6]  Geoffrey M. Hargreaves,et al.  Onset of deglacial warming in West Antarctica driven by local orbital forcing , 2013, Nature.

[7]  Meijian An,et al.  A simple method for determining the spatial resolution of a general inverse problem , 2012 .

[8]  R. Bindschadler,et al.  Satellite-Image-Derived Velocity Field of an Antarctic Ice Stream , 1991, Science.

[9]  Marie-Noëlle Bouin,et al.  New constraints on Antarctic plate motion and deformation from GPS data , 2000 .

[10]  T. H. Jacka,et al.  Results From The Amery Ice Shelf Project , 1982, Annals of Glaciology.

[11]  Jack T. Beavers,et al.  Mass balance , 2019, Principles of Glacier Mechanics.

[12]  Veijo A. Pohjola,et al.  Stand-alone single-frequency GPS ice velocity observations on Nordenskiöldbreen, Svalbard , 2010 .

[13]  B. Scheuchl,et al.  Ice Flow of the Antarctic Ice Sheet , 2011, Science.

[14]  D. L. Anderson,et al.  Preliminary reference earth model , 1981 .

[15]  Laurent Testut,et al.  Comparison between computed balance velocities and GPS measurements in the Lambert Glacier basin, East Antarctica , 2003, Annals of Glaciology.

[16]  H. Blatter,et al.  Dynamics of Ice Sheets and Glaciers , 2009 .

[17]  L. Xiaowen,et al.  DINSAR measurement of glacier motion in Antarctic Grove Mountain , 2007 .

[18]  Matt A. King,et al.  Ice velocities of the Lambert Glacier from static GPS observations , 2000 .

[19]  Walter H. F. Smith,et al.  Free software helps map and display data , 1991 .

[20]  Paul A. Zandbergen,et al.  Positional Accuracy of Spatial Data: Non‐Normal Distributions and a Critique of the National Standard for Spatial Data Accuracy , 2008, Trans. GIS.