Antarctic ice-shelf surface melt and hydrology, and implications for dynamics and break-up

This talk is part of our NSIDC Cryosphere Seminar Series and is led by Dr. Ali Banwell of the Cooperative Institute for Research In Environmental Sciences (CIRES). Abstract: About 75% of Antarctica is buttressed by floating ice shelves, which regulate the rate that grounded ice is lost to the ocean, where it contributes to sea-level rise. Since the 1990s, many ice shelves have thinned, and in some cases disintegrated. With projected future increases in atmospheric temperatures, models suggest that surface meltwater production will rise non-linearly, and as a result, ice shelves will become more vulnerable to surface meltwater-induced breakup events. Initially focusing on the George VI Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, I will first present field and satellite-based observations, which reveal insights into the role surface meltwater on ice-shelf dynamics such as flexure and fracture. Second, I will present results of our study which combined satellite microwave data and a sophisticated snow model to quantify Antarctic-wide ice-shelf surface meltwater volume over the last four decades. Bio: Alison (Ali) Banwell is a glaciologist and Research Scientist in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), part of the University of Colorado Boulder. Broadly, her research focuses on monitoring and quantifying glacier, ice-sheet and ice-shelf melt, hydrology and dynamics using satellite remote-sensing, fieldwork and modeling. She received her Ph.D. in Glaciology from the University of Cambridge, and her B.Sc. from the University of Edinburgh, UK. She has led many field expeditions inAntarctica and has also conducted fieldwork on the Greenland Ice Sheet, Svalbard and the Himalaya.