Substantial changes in the coastline of Antarctica revealed by satellite imagery

Ferrigno, Jane G.; Gould, W.G.

doi:10.1017/s003224740000807x

Cited by 70 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…In August 1986, three giant icebergs (A-22, A-23, and A-24), each one between 3000 and 4000 km 2 in area, calved from the Filchner Ice Shelf front (Ferrigno and Gould, 1987) and grounded at the eastern Berkner Bank. Iceberg A-24 came ungrounded in March 1990 and drifted northward through the Weddell and Scotia seas; icebergs A-22 and A-23 broke in two in 1994 and 1991, respectively.…”

Section: Tabular Iceberg In Weddell Seamentioning

confidence: 99%

A global, high-resolution data set of ice sheet topography, cavity geometry, and ocean bathymetry

Schaffer

Timmermann

Arndt

et al. 2016

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

181

200

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Abstract. The ocean plays an important role in modulating the mass balance of the polar ice sheets by interacting with the ice shelves in Antarctica and with the marine-terminating outlet glaciers in Greenland. Given that the flux of warm water onto the continental shelf and into the sub-ice cavities is steered by complex bathymetry, a detailed topography data set is an essential ingredient for models that address ice-ocean interaction. We followed the spirit of the global RTopo-1 data set and compiled consistent maps of global ocean bathymetry, upper and lower ice surface topographies, and global surface height on a spherical grid with now 30 arcsec grid spacing.

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Section: Tabular Iceberg In Weddell Seamentioning

confidence: 99%

A global, high-resolution data set of ice sheet topography, cavity geometry, and ocean bathymetry

Schaffer

Timmermann

Arndt

et al. 2016

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

181

200

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“…The northernmost section C had already separated from the ice shelfin 1976, shortly after being hit by iceberg 1967A, formerly the Trolltunga tongue (Swithinbank and others, 1988). The most substantial change had occurred in 1986 by the calving of two major icebergs (Ferrigno and Gould, 1987;Jacobs and Barnett, 1987). The area of the larger seaward projection (section A) is estimated at~6520 km 2 and that of the smaller one (section B) at~1260 km 2 .…”

Section: Ice-shelf Marginsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes and surface features of the Larsen Ice Shelf, Antarctica, derived from Landsat and Kosmos mosaics

Skvarca¹

1994

A. Glaciology.

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Two uncontrolled mosaics were assembled at an ~1 : 1000 000 scale, covering for the first time almost the entire Larsen Ice Shelf area, using Landsat TM images of 1986-89 and the Kosmos KATE-200 photographic products of late 1975. By comparing them, it was possible to estimate the change along the 600 km north-south ice-shelfs seaward margin where substantial calving has occurred in the recent past. In overall extent, the ice shelf has decreased by ~9300km2 since 1975. The interpretation of the available satellite data also allowed estimates of the ice-shelf’s inland boundary and detection of new surface ice features, especially in the very disturbed region south of Jason Peninsula, which may help to explain the significant calving events occurring in this region. Estimates of surface velocities were derived by photographically co-registering sequential imagery in the chaotic rifted-crevassed area east of Kenyon Peninsula, where conspicuous ice features could be clearly detected even after a 10.4 year time interval. The Landsat TM mosaic, though uncontrolled, provides a basic data set for future studies of global change of the major ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula which is probably very sensitive to any climatic trend.

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“…On the other hand, the last major calving event in FIS occurred in mid-April of 1986 and onward, and resulted an area loss of ~11500 km 2 , which was broken into three large tabular icebergs. The volume of the mass loss was estimated as 4850 km 3 , approximately 40 times the average annual discharge along the front of FIS (Neuburg et al, 1959;Ferrigno and Gould, 1987;Ferrigno et al, 2005).…”

Section: Study Area and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They are close to the front and presented unstable patterns, unlike Rifts 3 and 4 in RIS. Thus, they may have the potential to cause a major calving event like the one that occurred in 1986 (Ferrigno and Gould, 1987). 100 scenes of different Landsat-8 OLI (Table 1), were used to measure the temporal changes of the width and length of the two rifts (Fig.…”

Section: Temporal 2d Mapping Of Rift 1 and Rift 2 In Filchner Ice Shelfmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Systematic Study of the Fracturing of Ronne - Filchner Ice Shelf, Antarctica, Using Multisource Satellite Data from 2001 to 2016

Xiao

Liu

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Abstract. We propose a new framework of systematic fracture mapping and major calving event prediction for the large ice shelves in Antarctica using multisource satellite data, including optical imagery, SAR imagery, altimetric data, and stereo mapping imagery. The new framework is implemented and 10 applied for a comprehensive study of the fracturing of Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf (RFIS), the second largest ice shelf in Antarctica, using a long time dataset dating back to 1957. New remote sensing data that have been made available in the past decade, including Landsat 8, WV-2, ZY-3 and others, greatly enhance our abilities to detect new fractures and monitor large rifts in three dimensions. Two large rifts, Rifts 1 and 2, were newly detected and are comparable to the Grand Chasm that caused a major calving event in 15 the region in 1986. Three-dimensional rift models generated from quasi real-time stereo ZY-3 images revealed important topographic information about the large rifts that can be used to improve the reliability of ice shelf modeling and support enhanced analyses of ice shelf stability. Based on the results of the 2D and 3D fracture mapping, the spatial and temporal analyses of the overall fracture changes and large rift evolutions, i.e., the level of fracturing in RFIS, were slightly increased, particularly at the front of the ice 20 sheet. The overall fracture observations do not seem to suggest immediate significant impacts on the stability of the shelf. However, the most active regional fracturing activities occurred at the front of Filchner Ice Shelf (FIS). A potential upcoming major calving event of FIS is estimated to occur in 2051.The stability of the ice shelf, particularly with regard to the developments of Rifts 1 and 2, should be closely monitored.

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Substantial changes in the coastline of Antarctica revealed by satellite imagery

Cited by 70 publications

References 12 publications

A global, high-resolution data set of ice sheet topography, cavity geometry, and ocean bathymetry

A global, high-resolution data set of ice sheet topography, cavity geometry, and ocean bathymetry

Changes and surface features of the Larsen Ice Shelf, Antarctica, derived from Landsat and Kosmos mosaics

A Systematic Study of the Fracturing of Ronne - Filchner Ice Shelf, Antarctica, Using Multisource Satellite Data from 2001 to 2016

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