Large errors in the estimation of glacier ablation and accumulation may arise from the uncritical use of planimetric surface areas in volume calculations based on specific point values. Three-dimensional digital terrain models of glacier surfaces show that the actual surface area is likely to be substantially larger than the planimetric area; with high-resolution digital terrain models, approximations of the true surface area may be as much as 20% larger. The errors are sufficient for questions to be raised about some calculations of water storage in glaciers, because incorrect surface-area values may result in ablation being underestimated substantially. Errors may also be introduced into calculations of radiation-energy inputs to a crevassed glacier surface.

Destructive debris flows occur frequently at glacierized Mount Rainier volcano, Washington, U.S.A. Twenty-three such flows have occurred in the Tahoma Creek valley since 1967. Hydrologic and geomorphic evidence indicate that all or nearly all of these flows began as outburst floods from South Tahoma Glacier. Flood waters are stored subglacially. The volume of stored water discharged during a typical outburst flood would form a layer several centimeters thick over the bed of the entire glacier, although it is more likely that large linked cavities account for most of the storage. Statistical analysis shows that outburst floods usually occur during periods of atypically hot or rainy weather in summer or early autumn, and that the probability of an outburst increases with temperature (a proxy measure of ablation rate) or rainfall rate. We suggest than outburst floods are triggered by rapid water input to the glacier bed. causing water-pressure transients that destabilize the linked-cavity) system, The correlation between outburst Hoods and meteorological factors casts doubt on an earlier hypothesis that melting around geothermal vents triggers outburst floods from South Tahoma Glacier.

Two experiments were conducted on the drainage system beneath the Lower part of the ablation zone of Storglaciären, a small valley glacier in northern Sweden. In the first experiment, over 70 tracer tests were performed in a cluster of moulins during a 1 month period, at sub-daily intervals. In the second experiment, input- and output-discharge signals were measured on the supraglacial melt stream emptying into a moulin and on the proglacial stream to which the moulin drains. The data from these two experiments are used in an idealized model of the subglacial drainage system to calculate the percentage of the system flowing as an open channel. Results from the tracer experiment suggest that the system is pressurized to within 60-340 m of the snout, while analysis of the discharge data indicates pressurized ronduits to within 0-415 m of the snout.

The subglacial hydrology of the ablation area of Storglaciären, a small valley glacier in northern Sweden, is dramatically affected by a subglacial ridge, or riegel. Water pressures above this riegel are relatively constant, while down-glacier from it they vary significantly. The lower part of the glacier accelerates in response to peaks in basal water pressure. The upper part may be weakly coupled to the lower part during these peaks.

A power-law fit of observed basal water pressures and measured surface velocities yields

where us is the surface velocity and PE is the effective water pressure (ice overburden pressure minus subglacial water pressure). Data from Findelengletscher, reported by Iken and Bindschadler (1986), yield an identical exponent and a coefficient one order of magnitude larger. The similar exponent implies that the process producing the velocity variations on both glaciers is similar. The variations in velocity are inferred to be due to hydraulic jacking on both glaciers.

The first four strings of phototubes for the AMANDA high-energy neutrino observatory are now frozen in place at a depth of 800-1000 m in ice at the South Pole, During the 1995-96 season, as many as six more strings will be deployed at greater depths. Provided absorption, scattering and refraction of visible light are sufficiently small, the trajectory of a muon into which a neutrino converts can be determined by using the array of phototubes to measure the arrival times of Cherenkov light emitted by the muon. To help in deciding on the depth for implantation of the six new strings, we discuss models of age vs depth for South Pole ice, we estimate mean free paths for scattering from bubbles and dust as a function of depth and we assess distortion of light paths due to refraction at crystal boundaries and interfaces between air-hydrate inclusions and normal ice. We conclude that the interval 1600-2100 m will be suitably transparent for a future 1 km3 observatory except possibly in a region a few tens of meters thick at a depth corresponding to a peak in the dust concentration at 60 k year BP.

An interacting continua framework is adopted to model a dry snow park, which is viewed as a three-constituent mixture composed of an ice matrix whose pore space is occupied by water vapour and dry air. We focus on the response of a one-dimensional vertical snowpack to changes in pressure and temperature at its surface. The time-scale of the surface forcing is assumed to be much longer than the time-scale for thermal transfers and phase change to take place. The constituents are, therefore, in thermal equilibrium with a common temperature Τ which is governed by a single bulk-energy balance. In addition, each constituent satisfies a mass and momentum balance. The constitutive postulates and external prescriptions necessary to close the system of equations are discussed in detail. Non-dimensional variables are then introduced formally to draw out the major balances in the equations and construct a reduced system that accurately models the dominant features in the snowpack. It is shown how the effects of phase change enter the leading-order balance. An iterative procedure is constructed to solve the system. Illustrations for the case of a sinusoidal annual temperature gradient imposed at the surface are presented.

A problem in mapping the polar sea-ice covers in both hemispheres has been the sporadic false indication of sea ice over the open ocean and at the ice edge. These spurious sea-ice concentrations result from variations in sea-surface roughening by surface winds, atmospheric water vapor and both precipitating and non-precipitating liquid water. This problem was addressed for sea-ice concentrations derived from the Nimbus-7 scanning multi-channel microwave radiometer (SMMR) data through the development of a weather filter based on spectral information from the 18.0 and 37.0 GHz vertical polarization SMMR channels. Application of a similar filter for use with sea-ice concentration maps derived with the special-sensor microwave imager (SSM/I) sensor is less successful. This results from the position of the 19.35 GHz SSM/I channels, which are closer to the center of the 22.2 GHz atmospheric water-vapor line than are the SMMR 18.0 GHz channels. Thus, the SSM/I 19.35 GHz channels are more sensitive to changes in atmospheric water vapor, which results in greater contamination problems. An additional filter has been developed, based on a combination of the 19.35 and 22.2GHz. SSM/I channels. Examples of the effectiveness of the new filter are presented and limitations are discussed.

Review of published descriptions of drumlin fields suggests that the following conditions are important to drumlin growth: (1) compressive longitudinal and possibly extending transverse strain rates in the ice, (2) thin ice such as occurs near the glacier margin, and (3) high pore-water pressure in the subglacial sediments. Most drumlin fields display all of these, and no fields of well-developed drumlins were found that did not. On the oilier hand, the lithology of drumlin-forming sediment appears not to be important in promoting drumlin growth, since it varied widely, nor are the lithology and large-scale topography of the bed.

The assumptions involved in the use of chemically based mixing models for analysis of flow routing of meltwaters in glacierized basins are critically evaluated. The assumption that glacial drainage systems consist of only two primary flow components is arbitrary and must be supported by independent evidence. Recent studies of the processes by which meltwaters acquire solute indicate that the assumption that flow components have unique and constant chemical compositions is unlikely to be correct. Source-water composition and weathering potential will vary over the course of a melt season, and the extent of subglacial weathering is strongly dependent upon such factors as meltwater residence time and the availability of reactive sediment, both of which are known to vary on diurnal to seasonal time-scales. Mixing of flow components does not appear to be confined to the terminal regions of glaciers and is therefore unlikely to be conservative as assumed. A multi-parameter mixing model is applied to the analysis of data on the chemistry of waters sampled from boreholes drilled through Haut Glacier d’Arolla, Switzerland, to demonstrate the range of dissolved species for which the assumption of conservative mixing is violated. The consequences of this violation for quantitative hydrograph separation are shown to be highly significant. The utility of mixing models as a tool for the investigation of glacier hydrological systems is questionable and the results of previous studies are unreliable.

Meltwater influxes may partly explain the low oxygen-isotope values measured in the Dye 3 and Camp Century ire cores. This has led to speculation that Greenland may not have cooled during the Younger Dryas and underlined the need for independent checks of the oxygen-isotope record.

Using optimal control methods and heat-flow modeling, the author makes a valiant but ultimately futile attempt to distinguish the Younger Dryas event in the ice-sheet temperatures measured at Dye 3, south Greenland. The author discusses the prospects for attempting the same in the new Summit boreholes in central Greenland: how that will require more accurate temperature measurements, a coupled thermo-mechanical model and a refined uncertainty analysis. He concludes by discussing how borehole-temperature analysis may improve the climate histories determined from ire cores.

There is an asymmetric pattern response of glaciers in Darwin Cordillera (54–55° S, 69–71° W) to the climate of the 20th century. This asymmetry is suggested here as a cause of an increased wind activity which has a pronounced orographic effect. Although climatic records for the last 50 years show a warming trend, as well as no trend in precipitation in the area, some glaciers are advancing. The area is characterized by strong climatic gradients, with high rates of precipitation on the southwestern side of the range and dry conditions on the northern side. Glaciers on the northern and eastern sides show a general trend of receding fronts. With a few exceptions, these glaciers have gradually and uninterruptedly been shrinking since the turn of the century. On the southern rim, the present extents of some glaciers are similar to their 20th century maximum extents. These are, in turn, similar or close to the Holocene maximum. The most extreme sites are the glaciers on either side of Mount Darwin, which is 2469 m high. The north-facing glacier Ventisquero Marinelli has retreated several hundred metres per year over the last two decades, while the south-facing glaciers in the Pahia Pia basin have advanced during the same period.

In this study, the frontal changes over the last 50 years of 20 glaciers have been analysed. Aerial photographs (verticals) from 1943 and 1984 have been used, as well as oblique aerial photographs from 1993. The general result is that glaciers with accumulation areas facing south and west show somewhat stable fronts, while glaciers facing east and north show receding fronts.

We use surface velocity derived from sequential Landsat imagery and a control method to estimate the basal-friction distribution of a major West Antarctic ice stream. The area-averaged basal stress is approximately 1.4 × 104 Pa, or about 29% of the area-averaged driving stress of 4.9 × 104 Pa. Uncertainty of the derived area-averaged basal stress is difficult to assess and depends primarily on spatial variation of the flow-law rate factor in the constitutive law. Spatial variation associated with depth-averaged temperature variation gives an uncertainty of approximately ±103 Pa. Approximately 60% of the ice stream has a basal-stress magnitude less than 104 Pa, and approximately 30% has less than 103 Pa. These characteristics suggest the presence of a mechanically weak, water-charged subglacial till. Small-scale sticky spots where basal friction exceeds the area-averaged driving stress are scattered irregularly across the subglacial regime and comprise approximately 15% of the ice-stream area. Sticky spots cluster in regions where Landsat imagery suggests structural features in the underlying bedrock.

The ability of solar radiation to penetrate into a snow cover combined with the low thermal conductivity of snow can lead to a sub-surface temperature maximum. This elevated sub-surface temperature allows a layer of wet snow to form below the surface even on days when the air temperature remains sub-freezing. A high-resolution frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar has been used to detect the onset of sub-surface melting in a seasonal snow cover. The experimental observation of sub-surface melting is shown to be in good agreement with the predictions of a one-dimensional mass- and energy-balance model. The effects of varying snow characteristics and solar extinction parameters on the sub-surface melt characteristics are investigated using model simulations.

A simple microwave-emission model is used to simulate 37 GHz brightness temperatures associated with snowpack-melt conditions for locations across the Greenland ice sheet. The simulated values are utilized as threshold values and compared to daily, gridded SMMR and SSM/I passive-microwave data, in order to reveal regions experiencing melt. The spatial extent of the area classified as melting is examined on a daily, monthly and seasonal (May-August) basis for 1979–91. The typical seasonal cycle of melt coverage shows melt beginning in late April, a rapid increase in the melting area from mid-May to mid-July, a rapid decrease in melt extent from late July through mid-August, and cessation of melt in late September. Seasonal averages of the daily melt extents demonstrate an apparent increase in melt coverage over the 13 year period of approximately 3.8% annually (significant at the 95% confidence interval). This increase is dominated by statistically significant positive trends in melt coverage during July and August in the west and southwest of the ice sheet. We find that a linear correlation between microwave-derived melt extent and a surface measure of ablation rate is significant in June and July but not August, so caution must be exercised in using the microwave-derived melt extents in August. Nevertheless, knowledge of the variability of snowpack melt on the Greenland ice sheet as derived from microwave data should prove useful in detecting climate change in the Arctic and examining the impact of climate change on the ice sheet.

A record of volumes of jökulhlaups from the subglacial Grímsvötn lake, Vatnajökull, Iceland, has been derived for the period 1934–91. The change in lake volume during jökulhlaups is estimated from the lake area, ice-cover thickness and the drop in lake level. The jökulhlaup volumes have decreased gradually during this period of low volcanic activity and declining geothermal power. The two jökulhlaups in the 1930s each discharged about 4.5 km3 (peak discharge 25-30 × 103m3s−1). In the 1980s, jökulhlaup volumes were 0.6.-1.2 km3 (peak discharge 2 × 103 m3 s−1). The lake level required to trigger a jökulhlaup has risen as an ice dam east of the lake has thickened. Water flow in a jökulhlaup ceases when the base of a floating ice shelf covering Grímsvötn settles to about 1160 m a.s.l. Apparently, the jökulhlaups are cut off when the base of the ice shelf collapses on to a subglacial ridge bordering the lake on its eastern side. The decline in melting rates has resulted in a positive mass balance of the 160-170 km2 Grímsvötn ice-drainage basin. Comparison of maps shows that the average positive mass-balance rate was 0.12 km3 a−1 (25% of the total accumulation) in the period 1946-87. A gradually increasing positive mass balance has prevailed since 1954, reaching 0.23 km3 a−1 in 1976-86 (48% of total accumulation).

Measurements of mass balance were performed every month on Zongo Glacier. Bolivia. Simultaneously, water-discharge, temperature and precipitation data were obtained. The first year of the survey, 1991–92. was marked by an ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) event with high temperature and low precipitation, whilst the following year, 1992–93, was normal. Results point to the early and late wet season (October-December and March–May: as playing a critical role in the determination of the annual mass balance. The wet season is the warmest period of the year and consequently the duration of the wet season is a highly relevant variable in determining mass balance. Both glaciological and hydrological methods for the determination of the mass balance provide similar results. Our study confirms dial ENSO events have a major influence on the rapid glacier retreat currently affecting this part of the Andes.

The appearance of double-ridge features on visible imagery of the ice divides of Antarctic ice rises has often been noted but, largely due to a lack of adequate ground truth, their origins have remained enigmatic. We present several examples of ice rises and other isolated ice-flow centres that apparently show double ridges. We investigate one of these in particular: Fletcher Promontory, Antarctica. A digtal-elevation model (DEM) of the summit region is derived from surface profiles obtained using the Global Positioning System (GPS) and this is correlated with Landsat MSS satellite imagery. Precise registration is achieved by correlating image-brightness values with surface slope calculated along the direction of the Sun azimuth in the image. Using a simple bi-directional relation, the DEM data are used to model the Landsat image. We therefore demonstrate that the double ridge is a product of a subtle concavity parallel to the ridge and is unlikely to be dependent on other factors. This concavity is not predicted by steady-state models of ice divides and so we suggest that the ridge may not be in a steady-state but responding to changes in the glaciological boundary conditions. We speculate that this may be an indication of ongoing migration of the ice divide.

Glacial calving is a poorly understood process. This study tests the influence of local environmental variables on the magnitude and frequency distributions of calving behaviour at Glaciar San Rafael, Chile. Near the terminus of the glacier, surface speeds average 17 m d −1 in summer and calving is profuse and continual. The size, location and characteristics of over 7000 calving events were recorded during 32d in 1991 and 1992, together with meteorological, bathymetric and oceanographic data. Mean daily calving exceeds 400 events per day and the mean calving flux is more than 2 Mm3d1. Mean annual calving speed and calving flux are about 4500 m a −1 and 2.0 km3 a−1, respectively. This calving speed is higher than that predicted by the established empirical relationship between tide-water calving speed and water depth. This is surprising, given the low salinity of Laguna San Rafael and that fresh-water calving speeds are commonly much lower than those in ride water. Daily patterns of calving frequency and flux correlate poorly or not at all with meteorological variables, but tidal stage may have some control over the timing of large submarine calving events. Submarine calving produced the largest bergs. However, the relatively small total flux recorded from the submerged pars of the ice cliff may imply unusually rapid melt rates.

Characteristics of the hydrology and motion of Black Rapids and Fels Glaciers, Alaska, were observed from 1986 to 1989. Hydrological measurements included stage, electrical conductivity and suspended-sediment concentration in the discharge stream of each glacier, and were made at 0.5–1 h intervals continuously through most of the melt seasons. Variations in the glacier speed were monitored through the full year at a number of locations along the length of each glacier using time-lapse photography (1 d time resolution), strain meters (0.5–1 h resolution) and seismometers set up to count acoustic emissions. Both glaciers show similar seasonal, diurnal and short-term event changes in hydrological discharges and ice speed. The hydrological behavior is analyzed in terms of a “fast” sub-system composed of surface streams, moulins and large tunnels with discharge that responds rapidly and a “slow” sub-system composed of heterogeneous small passageways through the ice and distributed over the bed that maintain approximately uniform discharge over a day. The liming and amplitude of water discharge in the diurnal cycle indicate that roughly 10–40% of the water is routed directly into the fast system. The remaining 90–60% of the water enters the slow system. Dilution of the solute discharged from the slow system by the variable discharge in the fast system results in changes in water discharge and solute concentration that are approximately equal in relative amplitude and inversely related. A small time lag from discharge maximum (minimum) to solute minimum (maximum) suggests that the fast system is confined to roughly the lowermost 30–40% of the full glacier length. The residence time of water in the fast system is short compared to 1 d. The slow system contains both short- and long-residence time passages. Characteristics of the diurnal cycles are somewhat variable through the melt season, but no systematic evolutionary patterns were discerned even though large changes in the mean discharges of water and solutes occur, which suggests parallel evolution of the variables that control the response of the fast system. Events were characterized by contemporaneous increases in suspended-sediment concentration in the discharge water and distinct changes in straining on the glaciers. Events caused by-increases in melt or precipitation related to weather and events related to release from reservoirs internal to the glaciers could be distinguished based on the changes in electrical conductivity of the discharge water. The correlated changes in sediment discharge and motion of the glaciers indicate that the events were associated with temporary modifications of the slow passages distributed over the bed that allowed enhanced sliding and access of basal water flow to erosion products. Hydrological differences between Black Rapids and Fels Glaciers can be explained by differences in the size of the glaciers. If there is a difference in bed structure that explains the difference in dynamics (surge — Black Rapids Glacier - versus non-surge - Fels Glacier), it does not affect the hydrological parameters that were observed.

Wavelets transmitted by short-pulse radar are recovered from continuous profiles and used to determine interfacial dielectric contrasts within the englacial and basal ice at the terminus area of Matanuska Glacier, Alaska, U.S.A. The field studies were in the ablation region, where radar horizons could, at some point, be identified with interfaces between clear ice and air, water or basal ice, and were performed in early spring before drainage fully developed. The profiles used closely-spaced antennas with bandwidths centered near 50 and 400 MHz. Transmitted wavelets reflected from interfaces of known dielectric contrasts are used to establish a phase reference for other events from interfaces between unknown contrasts. Migration and Fourier-transform filtering are then applied to the profiles and shown to recover these wavelets from diffractions and reflections. Interfacial dielectric contrasts are determined from the relative phase of the wavelets. Near the terminus lake, some basal ice events above 8 m depth are interpreted as voids. Further up-glacier, most englacial events are interpreted as voids, but deeper localized reflectors and horizons to 90 m depth and within the basal zone are interpreted as voids, water or debris. Phase cannot be determined for the basal-substrate transition reflections. Recommendations are made for improving the wavelet recovery process and the quality of GPR migration.