We investigate and quantify the variability of snow accumulation rate around a medium-depth firn core (160 m) drilled in east Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica (75°00′ S, 15°00’ E; 3470 m h.a.e. (ellipsoidal height)). We present accumulation data from five snow pits and five shallow (20 m) firn cores distributed within a 3.5–7 km distance, retrieved during the 2000/01 Nordic EPICA (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica) traverse. Snow accumulation rates estimated for shorter periods show higher spatial variance than for longer periods. Accumulation variability as recorded from the firn cores and snow pits cannot explain all the variation in the ion and isotope time series; other depositional and post-depositional processes need to be accounted for. Through simple statistical analysis we show that there are differences in sensitivity to these processes between the analyzed species. Oxygen isotopes and sulphate are more conservative in their post-depositional behaviour than the more volatile acids, such as nitrate and to some degree chloride and methanesulphonic acid. We discuss the possible causes for the accumulation variability and the implications for the interpretation of ice-core records.

Changes in ice mass are estimated from elevation changes derived from 10.5 years (Greenland) and 9 years (Antarctica) of satellite radar altimetry data from the European Remote-sensing Satellites ERS-1 and -2. For the first time, the dH/dt values are adjusted for changes in surface elevation resulting from temperature-driven variations in the rate of firn compaction. The Greenland ice sheet is thinning at the margins (–42 ± 2Gta¯1 below the equilibrium-line altitude (ELA)) and growing inland (+53 ± 2Gta-1 above the ELA) with a small overall mass gain (+11 ± 3Gta–1; –0.03 mma–1 SLE (sea-level equivalent)). The ice sheet in West Antarctica (WA) is losing mass (–47 ± 4Gta–1) and the ice sheet in East Antarctica (EA) shows a small mass gain (+16 ± 11 Gta–1) for a combined net change of –31 ± 12 Gta–1 (+0.08mma–1 SLE). The contribution of the three ice sheets to sea level is +0.05±0.03mma–1. The Antarctic ice shelves show corresponding mass changes of –95 ± 11 Gta–1 in WA and +142 ± 10Gta–1 in EA. Thinning at the margins of the Greenland ice sheet and growth at higher elevations is an expected response to increasing temperatures and precipitation in a warming climate. The marked thinnings in the Pine Island and Thwaites Glacier basins of WA and the Totten Glacier basin in EA are probably ice- dynamic responses to long-term climate change and perhaps past removal of their adjacent ice shelves. The ice growth in the southern Antarctic Peninsula and parts of EA may be due to increasing precipitation during the last century.

For accurate ice-sheet flow modelling, the anisotropic behaviour of ice must be taken fully into account. However, physically based micro-macro (μ-M) models for the behaviour of an anisotropic ice polycrystal are too complex to be implemented easily in large-scale ice-sheet flow models. An easy and efficient method to remedy this is presented. Polar ice is assumed to behave as a linearly viscous orthotropic material whose general flow law (GOLF) depends on six parameters, and its orthotropic fabric is described by an ‘orientation distribution function’ (ODF) depending on two parameters. A method to pass from the ODF to a discrete description of the fabric, and vice versa, is presented. Considering any available μ-M model, the parameters of the GOLF that fit the response obtained by running this μ-M model are calculated for any set of ODF parameters. It is thus possible to tabulate the GOLF over a grid in the space of the ODF parameters. This step is performed once and for all. Ice-sheet flow models need the general form of the GOLF to be implemented in the available code (once), then, during each individual run, to retrieve the GOLF parameters from the table by interpolation. As an application example, the GOLF is tabulated using three different μ-M models and used to derive the rheological properties of ice along the Greenland Icecore Project (GRIP) ice core.

It is well known that ice-cube spikes form by the extrusion of water at the surface of a freezing ice cube, driven by the expansion accompanying freezing. The growing spikes are water-filled ice tubes, growing at their tips as the water is expelled. This paper represents an exploration of their formation and the principles behind whether a freezing ice cube grows a spike or not. For this purpose, ice cubes are frozen in one set of conditions to observe what happens when spikes do or do not form. Spike formation requires a nearly steady-state freezing-and-extrusion process at the growing tip, in order to maintain a nearly constant diameter. Most spikes are polycrystals with special orientation relationships that evidently allow the steady state to become established. Thus the orientations of the initial crystals, formed by chance, help to determine whether a spike forms or not. The main alternative to spike formation is flooding over the upper surface of the ice. Spike formation depends upon an effectively non-zero contact angle of water on ice that impedes flooding. The onset of flooding is probably sensitive to the ice growth rate at the water surface, which depends strongly upon the crystal orientation with respect to the water surface where it contacts the crystal.

The notion is developed of a mass-balance time constant applicable to the Northern Hemispheric glacier inventory taken as a whole. Ice dynamics are incorporated only implicitly in its estimation, which follows directly from a consideration of observed mass-balance and hemispheric temperature time series. While such a parameter must certainly be related to the rate at which glacier hypsometry adjusts to variations in climate, as are time constants derived via dynamic considerations, the parameter discussed herein differs with respect to its statistical character. For an ensemble of Northern Hemisphere glaciers a time-constant value on the order of a century is estimated. It is shown that such a value is consistent with the hemispheric near-equilibration of glaciers that prevailed around 1970. A ‘reference climate’ is defined, such that the mass balance in a given year is a function only of the difference between that year’s climate and the reference. This difference was small during the hemispheric near-equilibrium that prevailed around 1970, implying that the glacier wastage of the late 20th century is essentially a response to post-1970 warming. It is shown that precipitation fluctuations play a compensating role in the hemispheric net mass budget, in that they are strongly anticorrelated with fluctuations in temperature-induced melting. However, the contribution of precipitation does not override that of temperature, which remains the dominant influence on hemisphere-wide glacier fluctuations.

Small anomalies in ice-shelf surface temperature correlate with measured microtopography. Clear-sky thermal infrared (TIR) images of the Brunt Ice Shelf, Antarctica, frequently show persistent patterns of anomalous snow surface temperatures. The anomalous signatures appear as stripes orientated along the ice flowline and are of the order of 5 K in magnitude. The positional persistence of the stripes suggests a topographic mechanism for their formation. In order to test this hypothesis, the TIR stripes are compared to a digital terrain model (DTM) derived from a kinematic global positioning system survey of the ice shelf. Ridges and valleys are seen in the DTM; the ridges correspond to the warmer TIR stripes, the valleys to the colder areas. In order to investigate the mechanism that couples elevation with thermal signature, two comparable but contrasting sets of clear-sky infrared images are presented, along with surface meteorological data. The first shows strong TIR stripes, whilst the second, despite similar snow- and air-temperature profiles, shows a weaker signature and smaller sensible-heat flux, H. Two possible mechanisms are presented which explain the TIR signature: surface elevation mapping onto the vertical air-temperature profile or, alternatively, enhanced surface sensible-heat flux on elevated areas. At present, there is insufficient information to resolve this uncertainty.

Arches in stratigraphic layers directly under a flow divide (Raymond bumps) are predicted by models of steady ice-sheet flow, and have been observed in several ice domes. Here, we model the evolution of these layers when a formerly stationary divide migrates rapidly to a new position, then again becomes stationary, leaving the arched layers in a flank position. As they are then carried downstream with the flow, these abandoned arches can develop into recumbent folds. These folds can occur over a wide range of divide migration speeds. The shearing flow that produces these recumbent folds also distributes the folded layers over a wide distance downstream from the original divide location. If the divide offset is abrupt, ‘pre-cores’, or material lines comprising core-relative isochrones, can be used to quickly identify portions of an abandoned Raymond bump that would be overturned at any future ice-core site downstream. If, as appears to be the case in Greenland, the divide is never stable long enough to produce a mature arch, folds of this type would not occur. The most likely place to find such folds might be the flank of an ice ridge bounded by unsteady ice streams.

Dye-tracer experiments undertaken over two summer melt seasons at polythermal John Evans Glacier, Ellesmere Island, Canada, were designed to investigate the character of the subglacial drainage system and its evolution over a melt season. In both summers, dye injections were conducted at several moulins and traced to a single subglacial outflow. Tracer breakthrough curves suggest that supraglacial meltwater initially encounters a distributed subglacial drainage system in late June. The subsequent development and maintenance of a channelled subglacial network are dependent upon sustained high rates of surface melting maintaining high supraglacial inputs. In a consistently warm summer (2000), subglacial drainage became rapidly and persistently channelled. In a cooler summer (2001), distributed subglacial drainage predominated. These observations confirm that supraglacial meltwater can access the bed of a High Arctic glacier in summer, and induce significant structural evolution of the subglacial drainage system. They do not support the view that subglacial drainage systems beneath polythermal glaciers are always poorly developed. They do suggest that the effects on ice flow of surface water penetration to the bed of predominantly cold glaciers may be short-lived.

A grid-based surface energy-balance mass-balance model has been developed to simulate snow- and ice melt in mountainous regions with an hourly resolution. The model is applied to Storglaciären, a valley glacier in Sweden, using a 30 m resolution digital elevation model. Emphasis is directed towards computing the radiation components. These are modelled individually, considering the effects of slope angle, aspect and effective horizon. A new parameterization for snow albedo is suggested, modifying the albedo of the preceding hour as a function of time after snowfall, air temperature and cloudiness. The model is used to provide the meltwater input for discharge modelling and to assess the influence of the individual components on melt. Results are validated by means of observed melt rates, patterns of snow-line retreat and proglacial discharge. In general, simulations are in good agreement with observations. In particular, the diurnal and seasonal fluctuations of discharge are simulated remarkably well.

Alpine glaciers are very sensitive to climate fluctuations, and their mass balance can be used as an indicator of regional-scale climate change. Here, we present a method to calculate glacier mass balance using remote-sensing data. Snowline measurements from remotely sensed images recorded at the end of the hydrological year provide an effective proxy of the equilibrium line. Mass balance can be deduced from the equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) variations. Three well-documented glaciers in the French Alps, where the mass balance is measured at ground level with a stake network, were selected to assess the accuracy of the method over the 1994–2002 period (eight mass-balance cycles). Results obtained by ground measurements and remote sensing are compared and show excellent correlation (r2 > 0.89), both for the ELA and for the mass balance, indicating that the remote-sensing method can be applied to glaciers where no ground data exist, on the scale of a mountain range or a given climatic area. The main differences can be attributed to discrepancies between the dates of image acquisition and field measurements. Cloud cover and recent snowfalls constitute the main restrictions of the image-based method.

The effects of silt-sized particles (average diameter of 50 μm) on the compressive creep of polycrystalline ice have been studied at stress levels from 0.1 to 1.45 MPa and temperatures of –12ºC and –10°C. Dislocation densities during creep have been estimated using a dislocation-based model of anelasticity. The results indicate that at low concentrations (up to 4wt.%), particles increase the minimum creep rate. Power-law behavior with an exponent of 3 was observed for both particle-free ice and ice with 1 wt.% particles when the stress was >0.3 MPa. In contrast, linear behavior was observed when the stress was <0.3 MPa. Calculations show that the linear behavior is associated with a constant dislocation density, and the power-law behavior is associated with increasing dislocation densities with increasing stress.

Antarctic tabular icebergs are important active components of the ice–ocean system. To investigate the relevance of inherent ice dynamics to iceberg evolution, we developed a numerical model based on the fundamental equations of ice-shelf flow and heat transfer, forced by environmental parameters of the ice–ocean–atmosphere system. Model experiments with idealized icebergs of constant density show that the strain thinning rate for a typical iceberg with a thickness of 250 m and a temperature of −15°C is about 1 m a−1. Sensitivity studies for different scenarios of environmental conditions confirmed the reliability of our model. A 5 year simulation of the evolution of iceberg A-38B yielded a mean decrease in thickness from 220 m to 106.3 m, 95% of which was caused by basal melting, 1% by surface melting and 4% by strain thinning. We found iceberg spreading decelerating by about 75%, and ice temperatures being strongly affected by progressive erosion of the relatively warm basal layers and warming in the uppermost part. According to the model results, basal melting is the primary cause of change of iceberg geometry during drift, whereas strain thinning is only relevant in cold areas where basal melting is low.

The seasonal snowpack and meteorological factors associated with the accumulation and ablation of the snowpack were monitored for 11 years in a mountainous area in the warm-temperate zone of Japan. No notable rise was observed in mean wintertime air temperature, but an increase was seen in the difference between the maximum and minimum air temperatures. Precipitation exhibited annual variability but no notable reduction over the measurement period. The length of the continuous snow-cover period increased slightly over the 11 years, but no trend in variability was observed. The maximum snow depth and maximum water equivalent of snow varied greatly from year to year, depending on the amount of snowfall. In a heavy-snow year, about 1600 mm of water, which is almost the mean annual precipitation for the whole of Japan, was found to be temporarily stored in the snowpack.

Examination of synthetic aperture radar data collected over the southeastern Antarctic Peninsula shows that features sometimes mapped as ice shelves are more likely composed of numerous ice tongues interspersed within a matrix of fast ice and icebergs. The tongues are formed by the seaward extension of numerous small mountain glaciers that drain from the Antarctic Peninsula. Once afloat, the tongues intermingle with a matrix of fast ice and brash. Examination of 1997 RADARSAT-1 image mosaics shows that southeastern Antarctic Peninsula composite-ice shelves covered an area of about 3500 km2. Like ice tongues around the rest of Antarctica, these features are highly fragmented and likely to be susceptible to mechanical failure. One such composite shelf, located between New Bedford and Wright Inlets, was observed to decrease in area by 1200 km2 between 1997 and 2000.

The surface velocity field of Devon Ice Cap, Nunavut, Canada, was mapped using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR). Ascending European Remote-sensing Satellite 1 and 2 (ERS-1/-2) tandem mode data were used for the western and southeast sectors, and 3 day repeat pass ERS-1 imagery for the northeast sector. Speckle-tracking procedures were used with RADARSAT 1 imagery to obtain surface velocities over the terminus of Belcher Glacier (a major calving front) where decorrelation between ERS data occurred. The InSAR data highlight a significant contrast in ice-flow dynamics between the east and west sides of the ice cap. Ice movement west of the main north–south divide is dominated by relatively uniform ‘sheet’ flow, but three fast-flowing outlet glaciers that extend 14–23km beyond the ice-cap margin also drain this region. Several outlet glaciers that extend up to 60 km inland from the eastern margin drain the eastern side of the ice cap. The dominant ice-flow regimes were classified based on the relationship between the driving stress (averaged over a length scale of ten ice thicknesses) and the ratio of surface velocity to ice thickness. The mapped distribution of flow regimes appears to depict the spatial extent of basal sliding across the ice cap. This is supported by a close relationship between the occurrence of flow stripes on the ice surface and flow regimes where basal sliding was found to be an important component of the glacier motion. Iceberg calving rates were computed using measured surface velocities and ice thicknesses derived from airborne radio-echo sounding. The volume of ice calved between 1960 and 1999 was estimated to be 20.5 ± 4.7 km3 (or 0.57 km3 a–1). Approximately 89% of this loss occurred along the eastern margin. The largest single source is Belcher Glacier, which accounts for ~50% of the total amount of ice calved.

We describe the validation of surface albedos of snow and glacier ice as derived from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and MOderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) satellite data. For this purpose we measured surface albedos from a helicopter over Vatnajokull, Iceland, and the Kangerlussuaq transect (western part of the Greenland ice sheet) in Thematic Mapper (TM) bands 2 and 4 and AVHRR bands 1 and 2, and converted these values to ‘measured albedos’ in three MODIS bands. Relative to other validation methods, our helicopter measurements have the advantages of larger spatial coverage and of (almost) direct measurements in satellite-sensor spectral bands. We found the smallest differences between the satellite-derived and helicopter albedos for the Kangerlussuaq transect: for AVHRR data a mean difference of 0.01 in both bands (with the satellite in near-nadir position) and for two MODIS images a mean difference of 0. 00-0.02 for bands 2 and 4, and 0.03 for band 1. For two AVHRR images of Vatnajokull, we found mean differences of up to 0.06. Differences are primarily due to errors in the satellite-derived albedos, which, in turn, are mainly caused by errors in the calibration coefficients of the satellite sensors and insufficient knowledge of the angular distribution of the radiation reflected by snow and ice. Satellite data obtained from view zenith angles larger than ~50-55° appeared to be unsuitable.

In recent decades, several ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula have diminished in size as a result of climate warming. Using aerial photographic, satellite and survey data we document a similar retreat of Jones Ice Shelf, which was another small ice shelf on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. This ice shelf was roughly stable between 1947 and 1969, but in the early 1970s it began to retreat and had completely disappeared by early 2003. Jones Ice Shelf has two ice fronts only a few kilometres apart and its retreat provides a unique opportunity to examine how different ice fronts retreat when subjected to similar climate forcing. We mapped the retreat of both the east and west ice fronts of Jones Ice Shelf and found that, although individual episodes of retreat may be related to particularly warm summers, the overall progress of retreat of the two ice fronts has been rather different. This suggests that in this case the course of retreat is controlled by the geometry of the embayment and location of pinning points as well as climatic events.

The mechanical behavior and microstructural evolution of laboratory-prepared, particle-free fresh-water ice and ice with 1 wt.% (~0.43 vol.%) silt-sized particles were investigated under creep with a stress level of 1.45 MPa at −10°C. The particles were present both within the grains and along the grain boundaries. The creep rates of specimens with particles were always higher than those of particle-free ice. Dynamic recrystallization occurred for both sets of specimens, with new grains nucleating along grain boundaries in the early stages of creep. The ice with particles showed a higher nucleation rate. This resulted in a smaller average grain-size for the ice with particles after a given creep strain. Fabric studies indicated that ice with particles showed a more random orientation of c axes after creep to ~10% strain than the particle-free ice.

We have determined the in situ electric field attenuation length Lα (defined as the length over which the signal amplitude diminishes by a factor 1/e) for radio-frequency signals broadcast vertically through South Polar ice and reflected off the underlying bed. Conservatively assuming a bedrock field reflectivity for f = 380 MHz, and T = –50°C; the errors incorporate uncertainties in R. This value is consistent with previous estimates that the radiofrequency attenuation length exceeds the attenuation length at optical frequencies by an order of magnitude.

We measured the surface velocity field during the summers of 1999 and 2000 on the 7 km long, 185 m thick Bench Glacier, Alaska, USA. In the spring of both years, a short-lived pulse of surface velocity, 2-4 times the annual mean velocity, propagated up-glacier from the terminus at a rate of ~200-250md-1. Displacement attributable to rapid sliding is ~5-10% of the annual surface motion, while the high-velocity event comprised 60-95% of annual basal motion. Sliding during the propagating speed-up event peaked at 6-14 cm d-1, with the highest rates in mid-glacier. Continuous horizontal and vertical GPS measurements at one stake showed divergence and then convergence of the ice surface with the bed as the velocity wave passed, with maximum surface uplift of 8-16 cm. High divergence rates coincided with high horizontal velocities, suggesting rapid sliding on the up-glacier side of bedrock steps. Initiation of the annual speed-up event occurred during the peak in englacial water storage, while the glacier was entirely snow-covered. Basal motion during the propagating speed-up event enlarges cavities and connections among them, driving a transition from a poorly connected hydrologic system to a well-connected linked-cavity system. Sliding is probably halted by the development of a conduit system.