Analyses of several years of data show that acoustic emission activity is greater from unstable snowpacks than from stable snowpacks. Two types of signals have been identified: type I spikes and type II long-term elevation of the noise level. It is thought that the type I signals originate from macroscopic cracks. The type II signals may originate from differential movement on shearing surfaces, but this is less certain. Increased noise levels of both types correlate well with slope instability, when the slope stability is known. In some climates the limited range of signal detection might be a significant problem. A foam-mounted geophone set into the snow near active layers appears to be the best sensor available at present.

An updated compilation of oxygen-isotope ratio data for 562 sites in Antarctica shows a significant increase in the number of sites and an improvement in the representation of the coastal zone oyer previous versions. The data hase consists of ratio values (δ18O; multi-year mean 18O/16O relative to Standard Mean Ocean Water, in ‰) compiled as the dependent variable, together with data for the so-called independent variables: latitude, surface elevation, mean annual surface temperature and mean annual shortest distance to open ocean denoted by the 20% sea-ice concentration boundary. The problem of covariation between so-called independent variables is minimized using stepwise regression analyses. A general model is described using all the field data, and the regional variation at drainage-system scale is assessed by contrasting models for two physiographically distinct regions. in addition, entity-specific models are determined using data subsets for the conterminous grounded-ice and ice-shelf areas. Inversions of the specific models are applied to a 100 km grid data base to produce two contoured distributions of the ratio, one based on field data, and the other on remotely sensed data. The difference between these produces residuals that, relative to the summation of standard errors of the models, are small in most of the interior area of the ice sheet, and large in several areas of mountain and coastal regions, where interpolation and extrapolation of field data are particularly unreliable. Remotely sensed data generally produce ratio values which are isotopically cooler.

In July 2003 an ice-dammed lake was suddenly drained in an outburst flood at Qorlortorssup tasia in south Greenland, the site of a projected hydropower station. The lake developed during the first decades of the 20th century as a result of the recession of the ice cap in this area. It used to drain over a shallow rock spillway towards Sermeq kangigdleq, the adjacent outlet glacier to the north. In order to assess the hazard potential and the additional water contribution from the enlarged catchment, the glacial lake and its surroundings were investigated. Based on the analysis of available historical data, field investigations and model results, the history of lake generation and the sudden outbreak were reconstructed. With the lake formation the ice dam lost its connection to the ice cap. The flood was initiated after the ice surface became low enough for the lake water to overflow the glacier towards Qorlortorssup tasia basin, creating a gully through the glacier which drained approximately 55 × 106 m3 of water over a period of 8-10 days. Thanks to the stability of the dam and the downstream damping of the flood, there was no serious threat to a farm that is situated close to the planned power-station site. In the future, we expect much smaller floods, as a result of partial closure of the gully by ice movement or snowdrift in the winter. The new drainage pattern into Qorlortorssup tasia basin, however, will be a permanent situation. The amount of this new water contribution can only be roughly estimated since the exact size of the drainage basin is not well known.

The performance of passive microwave sea-ice concentration products in the marginal ice zone and at the ice edge draws much attention in accuracy assessments. In this study, we generated 917 pseudo-ship observations from four Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images based on the Antarctic Sea Ice Processes and Climate (ASPeCt) protocol to assess the quality of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) ARTIST (Arctic Radiation and Turbulence Interaction STudy) Sea Ice (ASI) concentrations at the ice edge in Antarctica. The results indicate that the ASI pixels in the pseudo-ASPeCt observations have a mean ice concentration of 13% and are significantly different from the well-established 15% threshold. The average distance between the pseudo-ice edge and the 15% threshold contour is ~10 km. The correlation between the sea-ice concentration (SIC), SICASI and SICMODIS values at the ice edge was considerably lower than the high coefficients obtained from a transect analysis. Underestimation of SICASI occurred in summer, whereas no clear bias was observed in winter. The proposed method provides an opportunity to generate a new source of reference data in which the spatial coverage is wider and more flexible than in traditional in situ observations.

As part of the ICE&LASER/SUBGLACIOR projects, an innovative probe called SUBGLACIOR is developed with the aim of perforating the ice sheet down to depths of 3500 m in a single season and continuously measuring in situ the isotopic composition of the meltwater and the methane concentration in trapped gases. Ice chips generated by the electromechanical drilling will be removed from the borehole by circulating a drill fluid. The selection of this drill fluid is important as it will have a major impact on the performance and the environmental evaluation. A literature review of drilling liquids is carried out to select potential fluids for further detailed testing. The selected fluids are varying grades of silicone oils, known as linear polydimethylsiloxanes, and ESTISOL™ 140, an aliphatic ester. The requirements for this project are similar to those for other deep ice-core drilling projects but, due to the embedded analytical system and the speed of drilling, there are some specific considerations. Following extensive testing, we conclude that a silicone fluid with a kinematic viscosity of 3 mm2 s−1 (3 cSt) is ideally suitable and affordable. This evaluation provides new insights into the use of silicone oils as a drill fluid that are of use to the wider ice-core drilling community.

Numerical experiments are performed for the Antarctic ice sheet to study the sensitivity of the ice volume to variations in the area of grounded ice and to changes in the climate during the most recent deglaciation. The effect of the variations in the grounded area is found to be the major source of changes in the ice volume, while the effect of climate change was minor. The maximum possible contribution of the ice-volume change to sea-level rise during the deglaciation is estimated to be 36 m, which covers most values estimated in previous studies. The effect of the advance of the ice-sheet margin over those regions not connected to the major ice shelves contributes one-third of the total ice-volume change, which is comparable to the effect of the grounding of the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf and the contribution of the Ross and Amery Ice Shelves together.

The retreat of the West Greenland ice sheet from its Sisimiut (Wisconsinan) glacial maximum, was punctuated by a series of Stillstands or small readvances that formed numerous moraines. These landforms have been interpreted in the past as the result of short-term, regional falls in ablation-season temperatures. However, mapping of the geomorphological evidence south of Ilulissat (Jakobshavn) suggests that retreat behaviour was not primarily governed by climate, and therefore that the former ice margins are not palaeoclimatically significant. During warm climate ice-sheet wastage, the successive quasi-stable positions adopted by the ice margin were largely governed by topography. The retreat of the inherently unstable calving glaciers was arrested only at topographically-determined locations where stability could be achieved.

Sea-ice cores from 11 sites in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, were collected in 1982 and their crystallography examined. All but one were first-year sea ice. The cores, approximately 2 m long, consisted typically of a thin layer of granular or snow ice (approximately 0.1 m) followed by columnar-grained ice in the top metre and platelet ice in the bottom metre. Salinity and temperature measurements are reported. The columnar-grained ice usually had a strong preferred c-axis orientation in the horizontal plane and also showed a change in this preferred direction with depth in the ice. The mean c-axis orientation, however, usually aligned well with measured or implied currents in the Sound. The platelets were usually aligned with c axis horizontal or close to horizontal, and did not exhibit as marked a preferred orientation as the columnar-grained ice.

Arctic and sub-Arctic snow is deposited on ground that can have significant microrelief due to tundra hummocks and tussocks. The microrelief, a substantial fraction of the total snow depth, causes basal layers of snow (usually depth hoar) to be discontinuous. In-situ measurements made at four locations in Alaska indicate lateral temperature gradients up to 60°C m −1 exist at the snow/ground interface due to the microtopography. For all sites, the winter average range of temperature along a 1.5 m transect at the interface varied from 4°C to greater than 7°C. Heat-flux transducers placed at the tops and bases of tussocks indicated that vertical heat flow was consistently 1.4 to 2.1 times higher at the top than the base. Results of a conductive model based on tussock height are consistent with these measurements.

After the NEEM (Greenland) deep ice-core drilling was declared terminated with respect to developing stratigraphic climate reconstructions, efforts were turned toward collecting basal ice-sheet debris and, if possible, drilling into the bedrock itself. In 2010, several meters of banded debris-rich ice were obtained under normal ice-drilling operations with the NEEM version of the Hans Tausen (HT) drill, but further penetration was obstructed by a rock in the path of the drill head at 2537.36 m. During short campaigns in 2011 and 2012, attempts were made to penetrate further using various reinforced ice cutters mounted on the HT drill head, tailored to cut through rock. These had some success in penetrating coarse material, but produced severely damaged cutters. Additionally a 51 mm diameter diamond cutting tipped rock drill was adapted to fit the NEEM drill. With this device, several additional meters of core containing subglacial sediments, rocks and rock fragments were collected. With these tools 1.39m of additional material were obtained during the 2011 field season, and 7.1 m during 2012. Subglacial water refreezing into the newly formed borehole hindered further penetration, and the bedrock interface was not reached before final closure of the NEEM Camp.

Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and SPOT data collected two years apart from an identical area of Dronning (Queen) Maud Land, Antarctica, have been analyzed to detect variations in surface features that may signal climatic change, and to establish a technique that readily identifies such changes. We found that selective principal component analysis (Chavez and Kwarteng 1989), on band ratios of near-IR/green, highlights changes in blue ice areas. The formation and preservation of blue ice is poorly understood, but we suggest that it generally takes longer to increase a blue ice area than to decrease it, and that blue ice extent is most sensitive to changes in accumulation rate. The investigated blue ice area shows a decrease in extent over the two-year period caused by incursion of snow that probably resulted from an increase in accumulation rate. Comparison of two TM images collected 18 days apart shows that transitory snow drifts have little effect on blue ice extent.

Air bubbles trapped near the surface of an ice sheet are transformed into air hydrates below a certain depth Their volume and number varies partly with environment and climate. Air bubbles and hydrates at 120-2200 m depth in the Dome Fuji (Dome F) ice core were examined with a microscope. This depth range covers the Holocene/Last Glacial/Last Interglacial/Previous Glacial periods. No air bubbles were seen below about 1100 m depth, and air hydrates began to appear from about 600 m. The observed number of air bubbles and hydrates was similar to that found in the Vostok ice core. For the ice covering the Last Glacial Maximum period, however the hydrate concentration in the Dome F core is about half that of the Vostok core. Reference to snow metamorphism and packing does not explain this finding.

The intra-annual variability of Antarctic precipitation from the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts short-term meteorological forecasts and from climate simulations by the ARPÈGE and LMD-Zoom general circulation models is presented and discussed. The spatial resolution of forecasts and simulations is high over the Antarctic region, about 100 km, so that the impact of topography and small-scale atmospheric dynamics are better resolved than with more conventional model grids (about 300 km). All the models and forecasts show that the seasonality of precipitation is spatially very variable. Meridional coast-to-interior contrasts are marked, but equally strong variations are unexpectedly found where more homogeneity might be expected because of the homogeneity of the environment, e.g. on the high Antarctic plateau. Neither the forecasts nor the simulations confirm that precipitation is mostly maximum in winter over much of East Antarctica as suggested by scarce and potentially unreliable observations (Bromwich, 1988). Spring and fall maxima are quite frequent too, though summer maxima are rare. Daily precipitation statistics show more spatial pattern, with increasingly infrequent precipitation as distance from the coast toward the interior of the ice sheet increases Several aspects of the intra-annual variability of precipitation can be interpreted in terms of atmospheric dynamics, but at both daily and seasonal time-scales the different forecasts and climate simulations often locally and regionally disagree with each other. Discrimination between models and their ability to reproduce the dynamics of Antarctic hydrology, and progress on simulating such aspects of the Antarctic climate, is limited by the lack of reliable observation of precipitation variability.

Explosive volcanic eruptions can inject large quantities of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere. the aerosols that result from oxidation of the sulphur dioxide can produce significant cooling of the troposphere by reflecting or absorbing solar radiation. It is possible to obtain an estimate of the relative stratospheric sulphur aerosol concentration produced by different volcanoes by comparing sulphuric acid fluxes determined by analysis of polar ice cores. Here,we use a non-sea-salt sulphate time series derived from three well-dated Law Dome ice cores to investigate sulphuric acid flux ratios for major eruptions over the period AD 1301–1995. We use additional data from other cores to investigate systematic spatial variability in the ratios. Only for the Kuwae eruption (Law Dome ice date AD 1459.5) was the H2SO4 flux larger than that deposited by Tambora (Law Dome ice date AD 1816.7).

Rutford Ice Stream, West Antarctica, drains a catchment of >45 000 km2 into the Ronne Ice Shelf through a 26 km wide, 2.4 km deep subglacial trough adjacent to the Ellsworth Mountains. Forty-two per cent of its catchment boundary is common with Pine Island Glacier, where rapid change to ice dynamics is currently underway. These changes may eventually affect adjacent catchments such as Rutford. Radar sounding data were acquired over the Rutford ice-drainage basin that show the internal structure. In particular, distinctive reflector groups were identified that mark the boundaries between four different flow elements. The flow-margin reflector groups include curvilinear events that cross-cut isochrones and are therefore likely to be post-depositional. These reflections may arise from crystal orientation fabrics generated by localized strain in a flow margin. One of the sectors of the ice-drainage basin supplies the largest share (38%) of the ice volume flux through the main trunk of Rutford Ice Stream. This sector may be preferentially affected by continuing surface lowering in the Pine Island Glacier catchment.

We consider a specific accumulation event that occurred in January 2002 in western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. Snow samples were obtained a few days after accumulation. We combine meteorological analyses and isotopic modelling to describe the isotopic composition of moisture during transport. Backward trajectories were calculated, based on European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts operational archive data so that the history of the air parcels transporting water vapour to the accumulation site could be reconstructed. This trajectory study showed that the air masses were not (super)saturated along most of the transport path, which is in contrast with assumptions in Lagrangian fractionation models and probably true for most precipitation events in Antarctica. The modelled fractionation along the trajectories was too limited to explain the measured isotopic content of the snow. It is shown that the observed isotopic composition of precipitation resulted from fractionation of initially more depleted water. This lower initial isotopic composition of water vapour might result from atmospheric mixing with more depleted air along the trajectory or from earlier condensation cycles, not captured by the trajectories. This is in accordance with isotope fields resulting from general circulation models, indicating a gradient in isotopic composition from the Equator to Antarctica.

Significant intra-annual variability in flow rates of tidewater-terminating Arctic glaciers has been observed in recent years. These changes may result from oceanic and/or atmospheric forcing through (1) perturbations at the terminus, such as enhanced submarine melt and changes in sea-ice buttressing, or (2) increased surface melt, in response to atmospheric warming, reaching the bed and promoting glacier slip. We examine the influence of these processes on Belcher Glacier, a large fast-flowing tidewater outlet of the Devon Island ice cap in the Canadian Arctic. A hydrologically-coupled higher-order ice flow model is used to estimate changes in glacier flow speed as a result of changes in sea-ice buttressing and hydrologically-driven melt-season dynamics. Daily run-off from five sub-catchments over the 2008 and 2009 melt seasons provides meltwater forcing for the model simulations. Model results are compared with remotely-sensed and in situ ice-surface velocity measurements. Sea-ice effects are found to have a minor influence on glacier flow speed relative to that of meltwater drainage, which is clearly implicated in short-term velocity variations during the melt season. We find that threshold drainage is essential in determining the timing of these short-lived accelerations.

Glacier fluctuations from key Vatnajökull outlets have been redated using tephrochronology coupled with two lichenometric techniques to ascertain the timing of the Little Ice Age (LIA) maximum in southeast Iceland. An updated tephrochronology for southeast Iceland (both the number of tephra layers present and their geochemical signatures) indicates a LIA maximum for both glaciers between AD 1755 and 1873. Based on a population gradient approach, lichenometrically dated moraines along the margins of Skálafellsjökull and Heinabergsjökull narrow this window to the early to mid-19th century respectively. These revised chronologies, in addition to emerging evidence from elsewhere in Iceland, support a late 18th- to early 19th-century LIA glacier maximum. In contrast, the Norwegian LIA glacial maximum is strongly centred around AD1750. This implies differing glaciological responses to secular shifts in the North Atlantic Oscillation. Such revisions to the Vatnajökull record are crucial, as accurately identifying the timing and delimiting the spatial extent of the Icelandic LIA glacier maximum will allow further light to be shed on glacier–climate interactions in the North Atlantic.

During summer 2007, perennial sea ice in the Beaufort Sea, Arctic Ocean, experienced an unprecedented amount of basal melt. It has previously been shown that this basal melt was linked to an increase in open-water fraction, increasing absorption of solar radiation into the ocean. GPS ice drifters, deployed around the site where the unprecedented basal melt was observed, provide a coincident observation of local divergence. This divergence is used to drive a multi-thickness category thermodynamic sea-ice model. We demonstrate that ∼ 75% of the observed open-water fraction by midsummer 2007 can be attributed to ice pack divergence during the growth season, preconditioning the ice pack for early melt in summer. Divergence during the melt season explains the remaining 25% of open water. Enhanced ice pack divergence in spring and summer 2007, in response to the increased transport of ice out of the Beaufort Sea, was sufficient to explain the melt observed in summer 2007 and the heat stored in the upper ocean at the end of summer.

We present 1 and 100 MHz ground-based radar data from the onset region of Rutford Ice Stream, West Antarctica, which indicate the form and internal structure of isochrones. In the flow-parallel lines, modelled isochrone patterns reproduce the gross pattern of the imaged near-surface layers, assuming steady-state flow velocity from GPS records and the current accumulation rate for the last 200 years. We interpret this as indicating overall stability in flow in the onset region of Rutford Ice Stream throughout this period. However, in the cross-flow lines some local variability in accumulation is seen in areas close to the ice-stream margin where a number of tributaries converge towards the ice-stream onset zone. Episodic surface lowering events are observed followed by rapid fill episodes. The fill events indicate deposition towards the northwest, most likely generated by storm winds, which blow at an oblique angle to ice flow. More problematic is explaining the generation of episodic surface lowering in this area. We speculate this may be due to: changing ice-flow direction in the complex tributary area of the onset zone; a change in basal sediments or sedimentary landforms; a change in basal melt rates or water supply; or episodic lake drainage events in the fjord systems of the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands. The study highlights the difficulty of assessing flow stability in the complex onset regions of West Antarctic ice streams.