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Abstract Glacier-bed characteristics that are poorly known and modeled are important in projected sea-level rise from ice-sheet changes under strong warming, especially in the Thwaites Glacier drainage of West Antarctica. Ocean warming may induce ice-shelf thinning or loss, or thinning of ice in estuarine zones, reducing backstress on grounded ice. Models indicate that, in response, more-nearly-plastic beds favor faster ice loss by causing larger flow acceleration, but more-nearly-viscous beds favor localized near-coastal thinning that could speed grounding-zone retreat into interior basins where marine-ice-sheet instability or cliff instability could develop and cause very rapid ice loss. Interpretation of available data indicates that the bed is spatially mosaicked, with both viscous and plastic regions. Flow against bedrock topography removes plastic lubricating tills, exposing bedrock that is eroded on up-glacier sides of obstacles to form moats with exposed bedrock tails extending downglacier adjacent to lee-side soft-till bedforms. Flow against topography also generates high-ice-pressure zones that prevent inflow of lubricating water over distances that scale with the obstacle size. Extending existing observations to sufficiently large regions, and developing models assimilating such data at the appropriate scale, present large, important research challenges that must be met to reliably project future forced sea-level rise. 

Hercules Dome, Antarctica, has long been identified as a prospective deep ice core site due to the undisturbed internal layering, climatic setting and potential to obtain proxy records from the Last Interglacial (LIG) period when the West Antarctic ice sheet may have collapsed. We performed a geophysical survey using multiple ice-penetrating radar systems to identify potential locations for a deep ice core at Hercules Dome. The surface topography, as revealed with recent satellite observations, is more complex than previously recognized. The most prominent dome, which we term ‘West Dome’, is the most promising region for a deep ice core for the following reasons: (1) bed-conformal radar reflections indicate minimal layer disturbance and extend to within tens of meters of the ice bottom; (2) the bed is likely frozen, as evidenced by both the shape of the measured vertical ice velocity profiles beneath the divide and modeled ice temperature using three remotely sensed estimates of geothermal flux and (3) models of layer thinning have 132 ka old ice at 45–90 m above the bed with an annual layer thickness of ~1 mm, satisfying the resolution and preservation needed for detailed analysis of the LIG period. 

Abstract All radar power interpretations require a correction for attenuative losses. Moreover, radar attenuation is a proxy for ice-column properties, such as temperature and chemistry. Prior studies use either paired thermodynamic and conductivity models or the radar data themselves to calculate attenuation, but there is no standard method to do so; and, before now, there has been no robust methodological comparison. Here, we develop a framework meant to guide the implementation of empirical attenuation methods based on survey design and regional glaciological conditions. We divide the methods into the three main groups: (1) those that infer attenuation from a single reflector across many traces; (2) those that infer attenuation from multiple reflectors within one trace; and (3) those that infer attenuation by contrasting the measured power from primary and secondary reflections. To assess our framework, we introduce a new ground-based radar survey from South Pole Lake, comparing selected empirical methods to the expected attenuation from a temperature- and chemistry-dependent Arrhenius model. Based on the small surveyed area, lack of a sufficient calibration surface and low reflector relief, the attenuation methods that use multiple reflectors are most suitable at South Pole Lake. 

Abstract Despite widespread use of radio-echo sounding (RES) in glaciology and broad distribution of processed radar products, the glaciological community has no standard software for processing impulse RES data. Dependable, fast and collection-system/platform-independent processing flows could facilitate comparison between datasets and allow full utilization of large impulse RES data archives and new data. Here, we present ImpDAR, an open-source, cross-platform, impulse radar processor and interpreter, written primarily in Python. The utility of this software lies in its collection of established tools into a single, open-source framework. ImpDAR aims to provide a versatile standard that is accessible to radar-processing novices and useful to specialists. It can read data from common commercial ground-penetrating radars (GPRs) and some custom-built RES systems. It performs all the standard processing steps, including bandpass and horizontal filtering, time correction for antenna spacing, geolocation and migration. After processing data, ImpDAR's interpreter includes several plotting functions, digitization of reflecting horizons, calculation of reflector strength and export of interpreted layers. We demonstrate these capabilities on two datasets: deep (~3000 m depth) data collected with a custom (3 MHz) system in northeast Greenland and shallow (<100 m depth, 500 MHz) data collected with a commercial GPR on South Cascade Glacier in Washington. 

Abstract. A system of subglacial lakes drained on Thwaites Glacier from 2012–2014. To improve coverage for subsequent drainage events, we extended theelevation and ice-velocity time series on Thwaites Glacier through austral winter 2019. These new observations document a second drainage cycle in2017/18 and identified two new lake systems located in the western tributaries of Thwaites and Haynes glaciers. In situ and satellite velocityobservations show temporary < 3 % speed fluctuations associated with lake drainages. In agreement with previous studies, these observationssuggest that active subglacial hydrology has little influence on thinning and retreat of Thwaites Glacier on decadal to centennial timescales. 

Abstract. The dynamics of marine-terminating outlet glaciers are of fundamental interest in glaciology and affect mass loss from ice sheets in a warming climate. In this study, we analyze the response of outlet glaciers to different sources of climate forcing. We find that outlet glaciers have a characteristically different transient response to surface-mass-balance forcing applied over the interior than to oceanic forcing applied at the grounding line. A recently developed reduced model represents outlet-glacier dynamics via two widely separated response timescales: a fast response associated with grounding-zone dynamics and a slow response of interior ice. The reduced model is shown to emulate the behavior of a more complex numerical model of ice flow. Together, these models demonstrate that ocean forcing first engages the fast, local response and then the slow adjustment of interior ice, whereas surface-mass-balance forcing is dominated by the slow interior adjustment. We also demonstrate the importance of the timescales of stochastic forcing for assessing the natural variability in outlet glaciers, highlighting that decadal persistence in ocean variability can affect the behavior of outlet glaciers on centennial and longer timescales. Finally, we show that these transient responses have important implications for attributing observed glacier changes to natural or anthropogenic influences; the future change already committed by past forcing; and the impact of past climate changes on the preindustrial glacier state, against which current and future anthropogenic influences are assessed. 

We present here Bedmap3, the latest suite of gridded products describing surface elevation, ice-thickness and the seafloor and subglacial bed elevation of Antarctica south of 60degS. Bedmap3 incorporates and adds to all post-1950s datasets previously used for Bedmap1 and Bedmap2, including 84 new aero-geophysical surveys by 15 data providers, an additional 52 million data points and 1.9 million line-kilometres of measurement. This has filled notable gaps in East Antarctica, including the South Pole and Pensacola basin, Dronning Maud Land, Recovery Glacier and Dome Fuji, Princess Elizabeth Land, plus the Antarctic Peninsula, West Antarctic coastlines, and the Transantarctic Mountains. Our new Bedmap3/RINGS grounding line similarly consolidates multiple recent mappings into a single, spatially coherent feature. Combined with updated maps of surface topography, ice shelf thickness, rock outcrops and bathymetry, Bedmap3 reveals in much greater detail the subglacial landscape and distribution of Antarctica's ice, providing new opportunities to interpret continental-scale landscape evolution and to model in detail the past and future evolution of the Antarctic ice sheets. Sponsored by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), the Bedmap3 Action group aims to produce a new map and datasets of Antarctic ice thickness and bed topography for the international scientific community. The associated Bedmap datasets are listed here: https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/bedmap/#data 

Abstract We describe elongate, wet, subglacial bedforms in the shear margins of the NE Greenland Ice Stream and place some constraints on their formation. Lateral shear margin moraines have been observed across the previously glaciated landscape, but little is known about the ice-flow conditions necessary to form these bedforms. Here we describe in situ sediment bedforms under the NE Greenland Ice Stream shear margins that are observed in active-source seismic and ground-penetrating radar surveys. We find bedforms in the shear margins that are ~500 m wide, ~50 m tall, and elongated nearly parallel to ice-flow, including what we believe to be the first subglacial observation of a shear margin moraine. Acoustic impedance analysis of the bedforms shows that they are composed of unconsolidated, deformable, water-saturated till. We use these geophysical observations to place constraints on the possible formation mechanism of these subglacial features.