ABSTRACT. The morphology of englacial drainage networks and their temporal evolution are poorly characterised, particularly within cold ice masses. At present, direct observations of englacial channels are restricted in both spatial and temporal resolution. Through novel use of a terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) system, the interior geometry of an englacial channel in Austre Brøggerbreen, Svalbard, was reconstructed and mapped. Twenty-eight laser scan surveys were conducted in March 2016, capturing the glacier surface around a moulin entrance and the uppermost 122 m reach of the adjoining conduit. The resulting point clouds provide detailed 3-D visualisation of the channel with point accuracy of 6.54 mm, despite low (<60%) overall laser returns as a result of the physical and optical properties of the clean ice, snow, hoar frost and sediment surfaces forming the conduit interior. These point clouds are used to map the conduit morphology, enabling extraction of millimetre-to-centimetre scale geometric measurements. The conduit meanders at a depth of 48 m, with a sinuosity of 2.7, exhibiting teardrop shaped cross-section morphology. This improvement upon traditional surveying techniques demonstrates the potential of TLS as an investigative tool to elucidate the nature of glacier hydrological networks, through reconstruction of channel geometry and wall composition.

Despite numerous studies of knickpoints in bedrock and alluvial channels, no detailed description of knickpoint change on ice has been reported to date. This paper presents the first investigation of knickpoint evolution within a supraglacial stream. Repeat longitudinal profile surveys of a knickpoint on Vadrec del Forno, Switzerland reveal a step height increase of 115 mm and upstream migration of 0.26 m over three days during the 2017 ablation season. Rates and magnitudes of erosion vary spatially across the knickpoint in relation to differing discharge regimes. At high discharges (~ 0.013 m 3 s-1), erosion is focused at the step base; at low discharges (~ 0.003 m 3 s-1), erosion is focused on the reach upstream of the knickpoint, at the step lip and the step-riser face. This results in replacement of knickpoint morphology, driven by frictional thermal erosion and hydraulic action. Pool formation further influences step morphology, inducing secondary circulation and increased melt at the base of the step-riser, causing steepening. Results highlight the complexities of water flow over knickpoints, demonstrating that the stream power law does not accurately characterise changing knickpoint morphology or predict retreat rates. Although morphological similarities have been reported between supraglacial and bedrock/alluvial channels, knickpoints in non-ice-walled channels will not necessarily respond to discharge similarly to those in ice due to the different erosion processes involved.

Meltwater routing through ice masses exerts a fundamental control over glacier dynamics and mass balance, and proglacial hydrology. However, despite recent advances in mapping drainage systems in cold, Arctic glaciers, direct observations of englacial channels and their flow conditions remain sparse. Here, using Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) surveys of the main englacial channel of cold-based Austre Brøggerbreen (Svalbard), we map and compare an entrance moulin reach (122 m long) and exit portal reach (273 m long). Analysis of channel planforms, longitudinal profiles, cross-sections and morphological features reveals evidence of spatial variations in water flow conditions and channel incision mechanisms, and the presence of vadose, epiphreatic and phreatic conditions. The entrance reach, located at the base of a perennial moulin, was characterised by vadose, uniform, channel lowering at annual timescales, evidenced by longitudinal grooves, whereas the exit portal reach showed both epiphreatic and vadose conditions, along with upstream knickpoint migration at intra-annual timescales. Fine-scale features, including grooves and scallops, were readily quantified from the TLS point cloud, highlighting the capacity of the technique to inform palaeoflow conditions, and reveal how pulses of meltwater from rainfall events may adjust englacial conduit behaviour. With forecasts of increasing Arctic precipitation in the coming decades, and a progressively greater proportion of glaciers comprising cold ice, augmenting the current knowledge of englacial channel morphology is essential to constrain future glacier hydrological system change.