Foresta, L, Gourmelen, N, Pálsson, F et al. (3 more authors) (2016) Surface elevation change and mass balance of Icelandic ice caps derived from swath mode CryoSat-2 altimetry. Geophysical Research Letters, 43 (23). 12,138-12,145. ISSN 0094-8276
Abstract
We apply swath processing to CryoSat-2 interferometric mode data acquired over the Icelandic ice caps to generate maps of rates of surface elevation change at 0.5 km postings. This high-resolution mapping reveals complex surface elevation changes in the region, related to climate, ice dynamics, and subglacial geothermal and magmatic processes. We estimate rates of volume and mass change independently for the six major Icelandic ice caps, 90% of Iceland's permanent ice cover, for five glaciological years between October 2010 and September 2015. Annual mass balance is highly variable; during the 2014/2015 glaciological year, the Vatnajökull ice cap (~70% of the glaciated area) experienced positive mass balance for the first time since 1992/1993. Our results indicate that between glaciological years 2010/2011and 2014/2015 Icelandic ice caps have lost 5.8 ± 0.7 Gt a−1 on average, ~40% less than the preceding 15 years, contributing 0.016 ± 0.002 mm a−1 to sea level rise.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016, American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | mass balance; ice caps; iceland; radar altimetry; swath processing |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst for Climate & Atmos Science (ICAS) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 28 Apr 2017 10:34 |
Last Modified: | 16 May 2017 00:38 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL071485 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Geophysical Union |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/2016GL071485 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:115679 |