Present-day high-resolution ice velocity map of the Antarctic ice sheet

Abstract

Abstract. Ice velocity constitutes a key parameter for estimating ice-sheet discharge rates and is crucial for improving coupled models of the Antarctic ice sheet to accurately predict its future fate and contribution to sea-level change. Here, we present a new Antarctic ice velocity map at a 100-m grid spacing inferred from Landsat 8 imagery data collected from December 2013 through March 2016 and robustly processed using the feature tracking method. These maps were assembled from over 73,000 displacement vector scenes inferred from over 32,800 optical images. Our maps cover nearly all the ice shelves, landfast ice, ice streams, and most of the ice sheet. The maps have an estimated uncertainty of less than 10 m yr-1 based on robust internal and external validations. These datasets will allow for a comprehensive continent-wide investigation of ice dynamics and mass balance combined with the existing and future ice velocity measurements and provide researchers access to better information for monitoring local changes in ice glaciers. Other uses of these datasets include control and calibration of ice-sheet modelling, developments in our understanding of Antarctic ice-sheet evolution, and improvements in the fidelity of projects investigating sea-level rise (https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.895738).

Mass Balance Assessment of the Amery Ice Shelf Basin, East Antarctica

“…To evaluate the quality of the AIS ice velocity mosaic, we compared our ice velocity results with the MEaSUREs Annual Antarctic Ice Velocity Maps (hereafter the MEaSUREs annual velocity) for the period covering July 2015 to June 2016 (Mouginot et al, ) and another high‐resolution Antarctic ice velocity map (Shen et al, ; hereafter the Shen velocity). Figure b shows the distribution of the velocity map differences, which are calculated as the MEaSUREs annual velocity or the Shen velocity minus our result.…”

Revisiting Ice Flux and Mass Balance of the Lambert Glacier–Amery Ice Shelf System Using Multi-Remote-Sensing Datasets, East Antarctica

“…SH19 resulted in the noise reduction of non-local means (NLM) filter and improved the quality assessment (QA) of band filtering using two-step optimization on the previous generation product. SH19 covers most of the areas from the Antarctic coast to 82.7 • S stored in 500 m × 500 m grid size [27,35]. These data provide the clearest image of ice velocity in the Antarctic ice sheet to date with a 105 m grid spacing and provide Antarctic ice velocity data for 2018-2019.…”