We present the first detailed study of regional and secular changes in accumulation rate from northern Greenland. Four 100–150 m ice cores from this previously little investigated region have been dielectrically profiled and a good chronology for all four ice cores established by modelling the density profiles and identifying volcanic peaks in the records. This made it possible to calculate the accumulation rates of each core. The current accumulation rates show that there is a large region of low accumulation rate to the northeast of central Greenland with drops in accumulation rate of 25% 150 km, and 50% 300 km from Summit.

Relatively large variations in accumulation rate over time are seen in all the cores. We have compared the resulting accumulation-rate record, which should be related to changes in local air temperature over northern Greenland, with Scandinavian tree-ring records and have interpreted the data as showing an early Medieval Warm Epoch, but no pronounced “Little Ice Age” and no unequivocal greenhouse warming effect as yet in northern Greenland.

No continuous record from Greenland of the Eemian interglacial period (130–115 ka BP) currently exists. However, a new ice-core drill site has been suggested at 77.449˚ N, 51.056˚Win north-west Greenland (North Eemian or NEEM). Radio-echo sounding images and flow model investigations indicate that an undisturbed Eemian record may be obtained at NEEM. In this work, a two-dimensional ice flow model with time-dependent accumulation rate and ice thickness is used to estimate the location of the Eemian layer at the new drill site. The model is used to simulate the ice flow along the ice ridge leading to the drill site. Unknown flow parameters are found through a Monte Carlo analysis of the flow model constrained by observed isochrones in the ice. The results indicate that the Eemian layer is approximately 60m thick and that its base is located approximately 100m above bedrock.

The paper describes the characteristics and behavior of unstable glaciers in the Pamirs, central Asia, over the last 30 years. These glaciers are divided into three groups: glaciers with registered surges; glaciers with signs of current instability; glaciers with signs of instability in the recent past. Examples are given to illustrate the nature of glacier fluctuations at a time of general glacier retreat in the Pamirs. A description is given of the evolution of Medvezhiy surging glacier, which was the subject of detailed annual observation from 1963 to 1991. Comparative characteristics of two building-up stages of this glacier, 1964–72 and 1974–88, are produced. On the basis of aerotopographic monitoring and with the aid of computer analysis, the kinematics of the glacier surface during the 1988–89 surge are traced in detail and the role of microsurges in the course of glacier build-up and the glacier surge is established.

In the frame of the SUBGLACIOR project, a new type of casing has been installed for testing during the 2013/14 austral summer season at Dome Concordia station, Antarctica. The SUBGLACIOR probe requires a full fluid column up to the surface, in order to circulate fluid for ice-chips recovery. This makes it essential that the casing is leak-tight through the porous firn column. We have evaluated existing solutions before opting to test a new method. This new system is made of polyethylene pipes which are welded together at the surface while the casing pipes are lowered into the reamed borehole. It is simple and lightweight and allows the casing to be installed quickly with optimum chance of being leak-tight. The installed casing has been tested both with compressed air and drilling fluids and has proven to work.

Pressure-sintering experiments of ice particles were carried out at pressures between 0.1 and 2.0 MPa and temperatures between -25 and -9°C. At each experiment, logarithm of the strain rate of densification was proportional to the density, and the slope of proportionality changed at a critical density implying the alternation of predominant densification mechanisms. The critical density varied with applied pressure and temperature, but its variation was restricted between 700 and 750 kg/m3.

At densities below the critical density, two-dimensional coordination numbers of constituent particles increased though specific areas of internal free surface were almost constant. The result was explained by the predominant contribution of the process of particle rearrangement in this density range. On the other hand, the contribution of dislocation creep was concluded to be dominant at densities above the critical density; the creep caused by boundary diffusion also contributes especially at higher densities.

The small-scale roughness characteristics of the bottom surface of the Ross Ice Shelf (RIS) are determined at two locations using airborne radio echo-sounding results. Small-scale roughness is not resolvable by an echo sounder, but may be quantified by examination of the fading pattern of the received echo. A full interpretation of the bottom echo requires a knowledge of the modulation imposed upon the radar signal by the ice/air boundary. This is obtained by determining the roughness scales of the ice-shelf surface. Its effect on estimates of basal roughness is investigated and is found to be unimportant in most cases.

The reflectance distribution of polar and alpine snow was measured under various conditions at 450, 514, 750 and 1000 nm wavelength. A reflectance peak appears in the azimuth directions up to 60° to both sides of the solar azimuth, is more prominent at high zenith angles of incidence and of reflectance and is better developed in coarse than in fine-grained snow. Under natural conditions, when only hemispherical-directional reflectivity can be determined, the anisotropy is spread in the blue part of the spectrum where the diffuse component dominates global irradiance. Bidirectional reflectance of a laser beam at 514 nm over alpine snow is comparable to that at 1000 nm over polar snow.

Passglaciären is a small cirque glacier in the Kebnekaise massif, northern Sweden. It is frozen to its bed over more than 70% of its area, and under present climatic conditions has little effect on cirque formation. More favourable conditions for cirque glacier erosion during the Holocene are of short duration. Assuming similar conditions during previous interglacials, it is suggested that forms such as the Passglaciären cirque developed mainly during the initial phases of glacials when they were part of networks of large valley glaciers or of a small warm-based mountain-centred ice sheet. Passglaciären has been examined in order to evaluate its erosive capacity and its association with the subglacial cirque morphology. The methods used are radar surveys and direct ice-temperature measurements. Erosion is restricted to a small section of the glacier bed, at present resulting in only partial deepening of the cirque and erosion of the backwall. In cold, arid regions with extensive permafrost, small cirque glaciers are largely frozen to the bed, and therefore cannot contribute significantly to cirque formation. In such regions glacial erosion by larger temperate glaciers is more likely to be the major cause of cirque excavation.

During the 30th Chinese Antarctic Expedition in 2013/14, the Chinese icebreaker RV Xuelong answered a rescue call from the Russian RV Akademik Shokalskiy. While assisting the repatriation of personnel from the Russian vessel to the Australian RV Aurora Australis, RV Xuelong itself became entrapped within the compacted ice in the Adélie Depression region. Analysis of MODIS and SAR imagery provides a detailed description of the regional sea-ice conditions which led to the 6 day long besetment of RV Xuelong. The remotely sensed imagery revealed four stages of sea-ice characteristics during the entrapment: the gathering, compaction, dispersion and calving stages. Four factors characterizing the local sea-ice conditions during late December 2013 and early January 2014 were identified: surface component of the coastal current; near-surface wind; ocean tides; and surface air temperature. This study demonstrates that shipping activity in ice-invested waters should be underpinned by general knowledge of the ice situation. In addition, during such activity high spatiotemporal resolution remotely sensed data should be acquired regularly to monitor local and regional sea-ice changes with a view to avoiding the besetment of vessels.

Flow avalanches may be regarded as being composed of a granular fluid. When dislodged, the snow masses accelerate down a slope until the inclination of its bed tends towards the horizontal, at which stage bed friction eventually brings the snow to rest. We present a completely new analysis of the motion of a finite mass of granular material along an inclined base.

We regard a granular snow mass as an incompressible continuum to which a Coulomb-like basal friction law can be applied. Depth-averaged equations of motion are formulated in terms of a curvilinear coordinate system along a curved bed, and incorporate an averaged longitudinal velocity and a height distribution. A numerical finite-difference technique is employed to integrate these equations. We present numerical results obtained for motion along a curved bed and compare this with the solutions of the equations with results from laboratory observations. The experiments have been performed in order to monitor the motion of a finite mass of granules, either plastic particles or glass beads, along a chute consisting of both an inclined and a horizontal zone, the two zones being connected by a curved element. The particle spread along the chute and the mass distribution of the granules in the run-out zone, as obtained from these experiments, are compared with those derived from theoretical computations. The results show that the model used predicts the motion of a granular avalanche reasonably well.

Finally, it is indicated how the basal friction law may be extended or altered in order to reproduce the dynamic processes involved in causing the abrupt cessation of the snow mass-motion characteristic in the run-out zone.

Characteristic features of the growth of sea-ice extent in the Sea of Okhotsk are discussed statistically in relation to the surface wind and air temperature over the Okhotsk basin. It is shown that cold-air advection from the continent is not the only factor for the growth of ice extent: air-mass transformation with fetch (downwind distance from the coast) is another important factor. Using weekly growth rates of ice extent and objectively analyzed meteorological data, it is shown that the ice cover extends when cold northerly/northwesterly winds blow, whereas the ice cover retreats when warm northeasterly/easterly winds blow. It is concluded that the advance/retreat of the Sea of Okhotsk ice cover is largely determined by the atmospheric circulation, which is in turn controlled by the position and intensity of the Aleutian low. Occasional out-of-phase fluctuations between the Sea of Okhotsk and Bering Sea ice covers are found to occur when an intensified Aleutian low is located in the mid-western part of the Bering Sea and induces cold northwesterly winds to the Okhotsk basin and warm southeasterly winds to the Bering Sea, or when a weakened Aleutian low is displaced eastward and induces cold northeasterly winds to the Bering Sea and warm northeasterly winds to the Okhotsk basin.

Large retreats were revealed for most glaciers in Patagonia, South America, by analyzing satellite images and air photographs. For example, Glaciar O’Higgins retreated 13 km during 41 years from 1945 to 1986 and Glaciar Upsala retreated about 3 km between 1968 and 1990. During the 41 years former period, however, the southern tongue of Glaciar Pio XI advanced by up to 8.5 km and Glaciar Moreno remained almost in a steady state. Considerable ice-thinning rates, from 3.0 to 11 ma−1, were measured by surveying surface profiles in the ablation areas of Tyndall and Upsala glaciers, respectively, during the period from 1985 (or 1990) to 1993. The ice thickness of Glaciar Moreno, however, has changed very little.

Numerical experiments using a simple mass-balance model show that a 100 m rise in the equilibrium-line altitude due to climatic change would result in about a 200–350 m rise in the frontal altitude at Glaciar Upsala corresponding to a retreat of 5–8 km, while it would cause only about a 70–100 m rise at Glaciar Moreno. The large difference between these two neighbouring glaciers results from the difference in contributions of the calving amount to the total mass balance, as well as the difference in the altitudinal distributions of drainage areas.

An analysis of snow-cover variability over Northern Hemisphere land masses reveals a continuation of the subnormal coverage that began in the late 1980s (relative to the 1972–present interval). While the 1994 snow year (September 1993–August 1994) exhibited a return to near-normal hemispheric extent, only three months during this period had above-normal coverage. Only 11 of the past 88 months (through October 1994) have been above the norm. Deficits have been most common in spring, over both the Eurasian and North American continents. This is a hemisphere-wide situation; positive correlations are identified between hemispheric and regional snow extents in spring, as well as in fall and winter. A number of significant associations are also recognized between regions during these three seasons; however, it is uncommon to see more than 50% of the variance in one region explained by another. These correlations are most common between adjacent regions, but some are found between regions on different continents. Only in spring are significant positive relationships between non-adjacent regions on the same continent observed.

Survey data from three transverse profiles across Rutford Ice Stream show that most of the shear deformation occurs in boundary layers about 10 km wide on both sides of the glacier. There is a central part, also about 10 km wide, where lateral shear-stress gradients are not significantly different from zero. This implies that friction from the side walls does not impede the flow in the middle of the glacier. Instead, a basal shear stress of around 40 kPa is required in order to provide the necessary restraint. Even then, only a small proportion of the forward movement will be caused by internal deformation of the ice and the remainder must arise from sliding or rapid deformation at or near the base of the glacier. Although the present analysis does not consider in detail the variation with depth in stresses and strain-rates, the formulation of the problem suggests that a self-consistent solution can be found for the distribution of basal and vertical shear stresses.

Dirt layers of tephra were found on the bare ice surface in the Meteorite Ice Field near the Yamato Mountains, Dronning Maud Land, and near the Allan Hills, Victoria Land, Antarctica. The grain-size analyses of volcanic ash fragments show that the mean grain size in the Allan Hills region is larger than that in the Yamato Mountains region. This fact indicates that the volcanic sources of the dirt layers in the Yamato Mountains region are farther away than those in the Allan Hills. Their constituent fragments are well-sorted and composed mainly of volcanic glass shards with minor amounts of crystal fragments.

Glass shards of the tephra from the Yamato Mountains region have a composition of tholeiitic andesite which is low in alkali and high in iron but not so enriched in titanium, and the associated crystal fragments consist of calcic plagioclase, subcalcic clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene and magnetite. The nature of island arc tholeiite of the tephra indicates that its source is some volcano in the South Sandwich Islands.

On the other hand, the tephra from the Allan Hills region is composed of glass shards of trachybasaltic composition and crystal fragments of titanaugite calcic plagioclase, kaersutite, olivine, rhönite and titanomagnetite. A young volcano of the McMurdo volcanic group is suggested as a possible source of this tephra.

Subglacial hydrology, sediment transport, pressure, and temperature have been studied beneath approximately 160 m of ice at Sondhusbreen, an outlet glacier from Folgefonni in south-western Norway.

The volume of the mean annual water discharge passing through the study area is about 60x106 m3. Most of this water is diverted into a tunnel system in the rock beneath the glacier and used for hydroelectric power generation. At the beginning of the melt season, this water flows in multiple small channels, but later it collects in one or two main channels. The discharge of eroded material is about 7 600 tonnes a−1. Of this, roughly 90% is transported by running water.

Pressure gauges and thermistors were installed at two sites under the glacier. Results from one of the sites indicated that ice can stagnate in some leeward positions, as almost no ice movement was recorded during most of the period of measurement and the pressure distribution was nearly hydrostatic. However, increased water pressure during the summer apparently resulted in the opening of subglacial cavities, adding a local up-glacier component to the flow at this site.

At another location, about 20 m up-glacier, non-hydrostatic differential pressures of up to 30 bar were recorded across an artificial dome-shaped obstacle. The flow at this location was more steady, in general, but rather dramatic effects were recorded when a boulder 0.3 m3 in size passed over the obstacle, destroying one of the pressure sensors. This sensor recorded a pressure of 90 bar before failing. The boulder was moving at a speed of about 40 mm d-1, whereas the sliding velocity of the ice was 80 mm d-1. Temperature measurements suggest that the difference in temperature across this obstacle was less than 0.03 deg, or an order of magnitude less than expected. This may mean that water was squeezed out of the ice on the stoss side of the obstacle as suggested by Robin (1976), and thus was not available to warm the lee-side ice by refreezing.

One of the unusual features of Lakes Fryxell and Hnare in Taylor Valley, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica, is their perennial ice cover. This ice cover limits gas exchange between the atmosphere and the lake water, and causesa very stable stratification of the lakes. We analyzed a series of water samples from profiles of these lakes and their tributaries for δ13C of the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in order to qualify the carbon flux from the streams into the lakes, and to investigate the carbon cycling with in the lakes. Isotopic values in the uppermost waters (δ13C = +l.3‰ to 5.3‰ in Lake Hoare, +0.4‰ to +3.0‰ in Lake Fryxell) are close to the carbon-isotope values encountered in the streams feeding Lake Fryxell, but distinctively heavier than in streams feeding Lake Hoare (δ13C= — 2.3%n to 1.4%). These ratios are much heavier than ratios found in the moat that forms around the lakes injanuary February (δC = -10.1%). in the oxic photic zones of the lakes, photosynthesis clearly influences the isotopic composition, with layers of high productivity having enriched carbon-isotope signatures δ13C= +2.7‰ to +6.1‰). in both lakes, the isotopic values become lighter with depth, reaching minima of 3.2‰ and 4.0% in Lakes Fryxell and Hoare, respectively. These minima are caused by the microbial remineralization of isotopically light organic carbon. We present DIC flux calculations that help to interpret the isotopic distribution. For example, in Lake Hoare the higher utilization of CO2aq, and a substantially smaller inflow of CO2 from streams cause the heavier observed isotopic ratios. Differences in the hydrology and stream morphologies of the tributaries also greatly influence the carbon budgets of the basins.

The objective of this paper is the comparison of two kriging methods, ordinary kriging and kriging within strata, for calculation of digital elevation models (DEMs) from radar altimeter data, and application to the Lambert Glacier/Amery Ice Shelf system, East Antarctica. Two new DEMs are presented. First, a DEM of the Lambert Glacier/Amery Ice Shelf system is calculated from 1997 European Remote-sensing Satellite-2 (ERS-2) radar altimeter (RA) data using geostatistical interpolation. RA data have high along-track density, but gaps between tracks are several kilometers, depending on the observation mode; this requires interpolation. Because the ice-stream/ice-shelf system is of primary interest in glaciological investigations, in the first approach a variogram characteristic of the Lambert Glacier ice surface is used. The resultant map has low errors for the glacier and the ice shelf. To match the surface characteristics of different morphological units that constitute the Lambert Glacier/Amery Ice Shelf region, a second DEM is constructed as follows: We utilize RADARSAT synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data that were collected in 1997 during the first Antarctic Imaging Campaign and composed into a 125m backscatter-data mosaic by Jezek (1999) and we co-reference the 125m mosaic with the altimetry-derived DEM. The Lambert Glacier/Amery Ice Shelf area is then subdivided into several regions which are homogeneous with respect to characteristic surface-morphological properties identified in the SAR mosaic. For those regions, a problem-oriented complex kriging method known as kriging within strata is performed, and the resulting DEM is compared to the DEM that was derived from kriging without regional subdivision.

Daily A ntarrtir sea-ice concentration, wind and temperature data for the years 1988-94 were analyzed using Fourier techniques to determine their temporal spectra for three equal-length “seasons". The percentage of the total variance explained (VE) by each individual wave (i.e. frequency] was calculated, and spatial averages made over six latitudinal hands surrounding Antarctica. Comparisons of trie sea-ice concentration, wind stress and surface air-temperature spectra showed sea-ice concentration VE has smallest, and wind-stress VE greatest, value in the synoptic time-scales. Conversely, in the 20-25 day window the wind-stress VE is smallest, and sea-ice concentration VE greatest. This “red shift” of the sea-ice concentration suggests it has inertia to the wind slress and temperature Forcing. Resulls show the magnitude of the red shift varies with not only time of year, but also distance from the coast, and is dependent upon the position of the Antarctic circumpolar trough.

Supraglacial streams are a significant part of the glacial hydrological system and important for understanding the connection between glacial hydrology and glacier dynamics. Here we determine the factors that influence the development of step-pool formation and pulsating flow in a supraglacial stream on Bylot Island, Nunavut. Results show that during the second week of a 2-week study, multiple successive rainfall events occurred, stream temperature increased and ablation decreased; which also caused stream discharge to decrease. In addition, the stream, which flowed over a 13 m high waterfall off the front of Fountain Glacier, rapidly formed 21 step-pools and began to pulsate. The pulsating phenomenon involved the complete stoppage of flow over the waterfall and the subsequent restart between 8 and 20 s later. Pulsating flow resulted from rapid changes in the streambed morphology. In particular, the formation of the step-pool sequence was caused by helical flow around meander bends and hydrologically induced slippage along transverse shear planes, evidenced by observations of high-pressure artesian flow from transverse fractures. Contrary to previous literature, this study shows that high discharge is not necessarily the cause of step-pool formation and pulsating flow within supraglacial streams.