We present Bedmap2, a new suite of gridded products describing surface elevation, ice-thickness and the seafloor and subglacial bed elevation of the Antarctic south of 60° S. We derived these products using data from a variety of sources, including many substantial surveys completed since the original Bedmap compilation (Bedmap1) in 2001. In particular, the Bedmap2 ice thickness grid is made from 25 million measurements, over two orders of magnitude more than were used in Bedmap1. In most parts of Antarctica the subglacial landscape is visible in much greater detail than was previously available and the improved data-coverage has in many areas revealed the full scale of mountain ranges, valleys, basins and troughs, only fragments of which were previously indicated in local surveys. The derived statistics for Bedmap2 show that the volume of ice contained in the Antarctic ice sheet (27 million km³) and its potential contribution to sea-level rise (58 m) are similar to those of Bedmap1, but the mean thickness of the ice sheet is 4.6% greater, the mean depth of the bed beneath the grounded ice sheet is 72 m lower and the area of ice sheet grounded on bed below sea level is increased by 10%. The Bedmap2 compilation highlights several areas beneath the ice sheet where the bed elevation is substantially lower than the deepest bed indicated by Bedmap1. These products, along with grids of data coverage and uncertainty, provide new opportunities for detailed modelling of the past and future evolution of the Antarctic ice sheets

We present Bedmap2, a new suite of gridded products describing surface elevation, ice-thickness and the seafloor and subglacial bed elevation of the Antarctic south of 60° S. We derived these products using data from a variety of sources, including many substantial surveys completed since the original Bedmap compilation (Bedmap1) in 2001. In particular, the Bedmap2 ice thickness grid is made from 25 million measurements, over two orders of magnitude more than were used in Bedmap1. In most parts of Antarctica the subglacial landscape is visible in much greater detail than was previously available and the improved coverage of data has in many areas revealed the full scale of mountain ranges, valleys, basins and troughs, only fragments of which were previously indicated in local surveys. The derived statistics for Bedmap2 show that the volume of ice contained in the Antarctic ice sheet (27 million km³) and its potential contribution to sea-level rise (58 m) are similar to those of Bedmap1, but the mean thickness of the ice sheet is 4.6 % greater, the mean depth of the bed beneath the grounded ice sheet is 72 m lower and the area of ice sheet grounded on bed below sea level is increased by 10 %. The Bedmap2 compilation highlights several areas beneath the ice sheet where the bed elevation is substantially lower than the deepest bed indicated by Bedmap1. These products, along with grids of data coverage and uncertainty, provide new opportunities for detailed modelling of the past and future evolution of the Antarctic ice sheets

Abstract. Greenland runoff, from ice mass loss and increasing rainfall, is increasing. That runoff, as discharge, impacts the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the adjacent fjords. However, where and when the discharge occurs is not readily available in an open database. Here we provide data sets of high-resolution Greenland hydrologic outlets, basins, and streams, as well as a daily 1958 through 2019 time series of Greenland liquid water discharge for each outlet. The data include 24 507 ice marginal outlets and upstream basins and 29 635 land coast outlets and upstream basins, derived from the 100 m ArcticDEM and 150 m BedMachine. At each outlet there are daily discharge data for 22 645 d – ice sheet runoff routed subglacially to ice margin outlets and land runoff routed to coast outlets – from two regional climate models (RCMs; MAR and RACMO). Our sensitivity study of how outlet location changes for every inland cell based on subglacial routing assumptions shows that most inland cells where runoff occurs are not highly sensitive to those routing assumptions, and outflow location does not move far. We compare RCM results with 10 gauges from streams with discharge rates spanning 4 orders of magnitude. Results show that for daily discharge at the individual basin scale the 5 % to 95 % prediction interval between modeled discharge and observations generally falls within plus or minus a factor of 5 (half an order of magnitude, or +500 %/-80 %). Results from this study are available at https://doi.org/10.22008/promice/freshwater (Mankoff, 2020a) and code is available at http://github.com/mankoff/freshwater (last access: 6 November 2020) (Mankoff, 2020b).

Abstract. We show that the CryoSat-2 radar altimeter can provide useful estimates of surface elevation change on a variety of Arctic ice caps, on both monthly and yearly timescales. Changing conditions, however, can lead to a varying bias between the elevation estimated from the radar altimeter and the physical surface due to changes in the ratio of subsurface to surface backscatter. Under melting conditions the radar returns are predominantly from the surface so that if surface melt is extensive across the ice cap estimates of summer elevation loss can be made with the frequent coverage provided by CryoSat-2. For example, the average summer elevation decreases on the Barnes Ice Cap, Baffin Island, Canada were 2.05 ± 0.36 m (2011), 2.55 ± 0.32 m (2012), 1.38 ± 0.40 m (2013) and 1.44 ± 0.37 m (2014), losses which were not balanced by the winter snow accumulation. As winter-to-winter conditions were similar, the net elevation losses were 1.0 ± 0.20 m (winter 2010/11 to winter 2011/12), 1.39 ± 0.20 m (2011/12 to 2012/13) and 0.36 ± 0.20 m (2012/13 to 2013/14); for a total surface elevation loss of 2.75 ± 0.20 m over this 3-year period. In contrast, the uncertainty in height change from Devon Ice Cap, Canada, and Austfonna, Svalbard, can be up to twice as large because of the presence of firn and the possibility of a varying bias between the true surface and the detected elevation due to changing year-to-year conditions. Nevertheless, the surface elevation change estimates from CryoSat for both ice caps are consistent with field and meteorological measurements.

[1] A fast-flowing tributary of Recovery ice stream penetrates more than 500 km into the interior of East Antarctica. Recent satellite-based studies found surface features in the onset area of this tributary that indicate a significant subglacial hydraulic system, including four large smooth basins, the typical surface expression of large subglacial lakes, as well as eleven smaller areas over which ice-sheet surface elevations rapidly changed by discharge/filling of subglacial water. Here we present the first ice-penetrating radar evidence of subglacial conditions in this area. We identified a distinct ice-water interface only over a limited area within the boundaries of the investigated large smooth basins, previously hypothesized to be water-filled lakes. The radar characteristics in some areas are similar to those of a drained lake, indicating that parts of the bed are wet, but not a typical lake. We also find evidence for discrete water bodies outside of the lake boundaries. The lines of evidence indicate that the northern most two Recovery Lakes have recently drained.