A Glaciological Map of Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, Antarctica

Abstract

A set of Landsat-5 multispectral scanner (MSS) images of Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf was commissioned by the Institut für Angewandte Geodäsie and recorded over a short period in early 1986. A mosaic of digitally enhanced images was constructed, using all available ground control. In due course it is planned to use the data for the production of a series of digital-image maps at a scale of 1:1 000 000. Meanwhile a line map has been prepared at a scale of 1 :2 000 000 to show the principal glaciological features. The new mosaic shows much more detail than earlier Landsat images and extends coverage to higher latitudes. More of the poorly known southern boundary of the ice shelf can be identified but floating ice still extends beyond the limit of coverage. Extensive ice rumples are revealed, many of them undetected in earlier imagery. Flow bands can be tracked without a break from their ice-stream source to the ice front, over distances of up to 800 km. Even minor tributaries, and sheet flow from the inland ice sheet between the ice streams, yield narrow but identifiable flow bands. Ice thickness, velocity, and mass-flux data are reviewed, in order to underline their dependence on good mapping.

Glacier crevasses: Observations, models, and mass balance implications

“…Subsequent studies demonstrated the ability of Landsat imagery to resolve crevasses on glacier and ice sheet surfaces. While Landsat was essentially a follow‐on mission of ERTS, one of the earliest studies to delineate crevasses with true Landsat visible imagery examined the structure of the Filchner‐Ronne Ice Shelf, Antarctica [ Swithinbank and Lucchitta , ; Swithinbank et al ., ]. More recently, Glasser and Scambos [] delineated and classified diverse glacier surface features, including crevasses and rifts, on the Larsen B Ice Shelf and its tributary glaciers, using Landsat 7 (15 to 60 m spatial resolution) and Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER; 15 m spatial resolution) imagery acquired before, during, and after ice shelf disintegration.…”

The spiral troughs of Mars as cyclic steps

“…[50] Terrestrial features attributed to hydraulic jumps and having similar stratigraphic and accumulation patterns to the spiral troughs are found in Antarctic ice [Swithinbank et al, 1988;Fahnestock et al, 2000;Frezzotti et al, 2002], subaerial streams (Figure 15c) [Kostic et al, 2010], and submarine sediments [Normark et al, 1980;Nakajima et al, 1998;Lee et al, 2002]. Features in submarine systems are called sediment waves and have been studied in detail [Lee et al, 2002;Migeon et al, 2000] (Figure 17a).…”

Ice-Ocean Interaction On Ronne Ice Shelf, Antarctica

“…Robin et al [ 1983] summarized available data, principally from radio echo sounding surveys, and drew some preliminary conclusions on the dynamics of the ice shelf and on the oceanic circulation. Since then satellite images, further radar sounding surveys and extensive seismic soundings have enabled detailed maps of surface features [Swithinbank et al, 1988], ice thickness [Crabtree and Doake, 1986] and sub-ice-shelf bedrock topography [Pozdeyev and Kurinin, 1987] to be compiled. Robin et al [1983] identified a large area of thin ice in the central Ronne Ice Shelf, underlain by saline ice of, then, indeterminate thickness.…”

“…Linear surface features originating from the margins of ice streams, and often referred to as How lines, have been identified on satellite images of ice shelves [Crabtree and Doake, 1980]. Many of the most prominent flow lines on Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf were mapped by Swithinbank et al [1988]. These delineate ice originating from different ice streams and give an indication of flow directions, if the ice shelves are close to a steady state.…”