Landsat 7 and RADARSAT‐1/RADARSAT‐2 satellite images are used to produce the most comprehensive record of glacier motion in the Canadian High Arctic to date and to characterize spatial and temporal variability in ice flow over the past ~15 years. This allows us to assess whether dynamically driven glacier change can be attributed to “surging” or “pulsing,” or whether other mechanisms are involved. RADAR velocity mapping allows annual regional dynamic discharge (iceberg calving) to be calculated for 2000 and the period 2011–2015 (yielding a mean regional discharge of 2.21 ± 0.68 Gt a−1), and velocities derived from feature tracking of optical imagery allow for annual dynamic discharge to be calculated for select glaciers from 1999 to 2010. Since ~2011, several of the major tidewater‐terminating glaciers within the region have decelerated and their dynamic discharge has decreased. Trinity and Wykeham Glaciers (Prince of Wales Icefield) represent a notable departure from this pattern as they have generally accelerated over the study period. The resulting increase in dynamic discharge from these glaciers entirely compensates (within error limits) for the decrease in discharge from the other tidewater glaciers across the study region. These two glaciers accounted for ~62% of total regional dynamic discharge in winter 2015 (compared to ~22% in 2000), demonstrating that total ice discharge from the Canadian High Arctic can be sensitive to variations in flow of just a few tidewater glaciers.

RADARSAT data from the 1997 Antarctic Mapping Mission are used interferometrically to solve for the 3‐dimensional surface ice motion in the interior of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). An area of ∼125 km2 in a tributary of the Kamb Ice Stream slumped vertically downwards by up to ∼50 cm between September 26 and October 18, 1997. Areas in the Bindschadler Ice Stream also exhibited comparable upward and downward surface displacements. As the uplift and subsidence features correspond to sites at which the basal water apparently experiences a hydraulic potential well, we suggest transient movement of pockets of subglacial water as the most likely cause for the vertical surface displacements. These results, and related lidar observations, imply that imaging the change in ice surface elevation can help reveal the key role of water in the difficult‐to‐observe subglacial environment, and its important influence on ice dynamics.

Interferometric RADARSAT data are used to map ice motion in the source areas of four West Antarctic ice streams. The data reveal that tributaries, coincident with subglacial valleys, provide a spatially extensive transition between slow inland flow and rapid ice stream flow and that adjacent ice streams draw from shared source regions. Two tributaries flow into the stagnant ice stream C, creating an extensive region that is thickening at an average rate of 0.49 meters per year. This is one of the largest rates of thickening ever reported in Antarctica.

Recent studies indicate an increase in glacier mass loss from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago as a result of warmer summer air temperatures. However, no complete assessment of dynamic ice discharge from this region exists. We present the first complete surface velocity mapping of all ice masses in the Queen Elizabeth Islands and show that these ice masses discharged~2.6 ± 0.8 Gt a À1 of ice to the oceans in winter2012. Approximately 50% of the dynamic discharge was channeled through non surge-type Trinity and Wykeham Glaciers alone. Dynamic discharge of the surge-type Mittie Glacier varied from 0.90 ± 0.09 Gt a À1during its 2003 surge to 0.02 ± 0.02 Gt a À1 during quiescence in 2012, highlighting the importance of surge-type glaciers for interannual variability in regional mass loss. Queen Elizabeth Islands glaciers currently account for~7.5% of reported dynamic discharge from Arctic ice masses outside Greenland.

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.

Abstract. We have derived digital elevation models (DEMs) over the western part of the Devon Ice Cap in Nunavut, Canada, using "swath processing" of interferometric data collected by Cryosat between February 2011 and January 2012. With the standard ESA (European Space Agency) SARIn (synthetic aperture radar interferometry) level 2 (L2) data product, the interferometric mode is used to map the cross-track position and elevation of the "point-of-closestapproach" (POCA) in sloping glacial terrain. However, in this work we explore the extent to which the phase of the returns in the intermediate L1b product can also be used to map the heights of time-delayed footprints beyond the POCA. We show that there is a range of average cross-track slopes (∼ 0.5 to ∼ 2 • ) for which the returns will be dominated by those beneath the satellite in the main beam of the antenna so that the resulting interferometric phase allows mapping of heights in the delayed range window beyond the POCA. In this way a swath of elevation data is mapped, allowing the creation of DEMs from a sequence of L1b SARIn Cryosat data takes. Comparison of the Devon results with airborne scanning laser data showed a mean difference of order 1 m with a standard deviation of about 1 m. The limitations of swath processing, which generates almost 2 orders of magnitude more data than traditional radar altimetry, are explored through simulation, and the strengths and weaknesses of the technique are discussed.

Speckle tracking of repeat RADARSAT-2 fine-beam imagery acquired over 24 day periods in March 2009 allowed the creation of updated surface motion maps for the entire Devon Ice Cap, Canada. Error analysis indicates that speckle tracking can determine ice motion to an accuracy of ~5 ma-1. Comparisons with earlier velocity maps from the mid-1990s and 2000 reveal velocity patterns that largely agree with flow regimes described previously. However, motion determined along East5 Glacier indicates an increase in surface velocities between the studies. Additionally, Southeast2 Glacier has significantly accelerated over the past decade, with velocities greater in 2009 than in the early 1990s along almost the entire length of the glacier. This is likely indicative of a surge. Present-day total mass loss from Devon Ice Cap due to iceberg calving is calculated as 0.40 ± 0.09 Gta-1, similar to that reported by Burgess and others (2005), with Belcher Glacier accounting for ~42% of the entire loss.

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