What is it about?
Three of the fastest-moving glaciers in Greenland slide effortlessly over the continent beneath them. We found evidence of very low amounts of basal friction when we analyzed observed patterns of ice flow for these glaciers. Other Greenland glaciers may similarly flow over low-friction bases; we simply studied the three with the most available data.
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Why is it important?
The scientific community uses ice sheet models to understand ice flow in Greenland and Antarctica, and therefore to predict sea-level rise rates and patterns. Ice sheet models require knowledge of the conditions beneath the ice, which are not directly observable. Here, we provide some constraints on Greenland subglacial environments.
Perspectives
Solving for basal resistance is a challenge in many ways. Only basal resistance or ice viscosity (softness) can be solved for, not both; the other must be known independently (or assumed to be constant, which is more common). My contribution to this work was providing the ice viscosity fields for these glaciers, which I calculated with an ice temperature model.
Kristin Poinar
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Basal resistance for three of the largest Greenland outlet glaciers, Journal of Geophysical Research Earth Surface, January 2016, American Geophysical Union (AGU),
DOI: 10.1002/2015jf003643.
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