Detection of an Antarctic Ice Sheet Sea Level Fingerprint

Description/Abstract/Artist Statement

Mass changes of ice sheets and glaciers force distinct patterns of sea surface height, known as sea level fingerprints. Specifically, these fingerprints are caused by the altered gravitational attraction and solid Earth deformation associated with the changing ice load. The detection of a fingerprint around Antarctica is difficult due to the various ocean dynamic processes masking the signal and limited observations near the coast. Using ice mass change estimations based on surface elevation observations, we predict a fingerprint of the Antarctic ice sheet from 1993 to 2018. The two most notable features of this prediction are a region of sea level fall on the West Antarctic coast, and a region of sea level rise on the East Antarctic coast. This is compared to separate altimeter observations of sea surface height corrected for density variations in the same regions. We find a statistically significant correlation (P < 0.001) between the two fields on the East coast, indicating a clear detection of the fingerprint associated with nearby ice mass gain. On the West coast, no such agreement is found, suggesting other coastal processes are unaccounted for in the corrected altimetry fields.

Presenting Author Name/s

Noah Hendricks

Faculty Advisor/Mentor

Sönke Dangendorf, John Klinck

Faculty Advisor/Mentor Department

Ocean and Earth Sciences

College Affiliation

College of Sciences

Presentation Type

Poster

Disciplines

Geophysics and Seismology | Oceanography

Session Title

Poster Session

Location

Learning Commons Lobby @ Perry Library

Start Date

3-25-2023 8:30 AM

End Date

3-25-2023 10:00 AM

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS
 
Mar 25th, 8:30 AM Mar 25th, 10:00 AM

Detection of an Antarctic Ice Sheet Sea Level Fingerprint

Learning Commons Lobby @ Perry Library

Mass changes of ice sheets and glaciers force distinct patterns of sea surface height, known as sea level fingerprints. Specifically, these fingerprints are caused by the altered gravitational attraction and solid Earth deformation associated with the changing ice load. The detection of a fingerprint around Antarctica is difficult due to the various ocean dynamic processes masking the signal and limited observations near the coast. Using ice mass change estimations based on surface elevation observations, we predict a fingerprint of the Antarctic ice sheet from 1993 to 2018. The two most notable features of this prediction are a region of sea level fall on the West Antarctic coast, and a region of sea level rise on the East Antarctic coast. This is compared to separate altimeter observations of sea surface height corrected for density variations in the same regions. We find a statistically significant correlation (P < 0.001) between the two fields on the East coast, indicating a clear detection of the fingerprint associated with nearby ice mass gain. On the West coast, no such agreement is found, suggesting other coastal processes are unaccounted for in the corrected altimetry fields.