Using REMA tiles to simulate water routing on Antarctic ice shelf surfaces.
Research Questions:
- Where on the Antarctic ice shelf does melt fill available depressions? 1a. How well does REMA describe current drainage extent/volume in ‘normal’ years? 1b. In ‘warm’ years, when melt flows into areas that don’t usually get covered with lakes, are their extent controlled by surface topography?
- Where on the Antarctic ice shelf does melt appear in areas overlapping with areas of buttressing
- How much additional melting is required to fill areas described above as not full?
- What volume of meltwater would be required to bring water from full basins to areas of buttressing
End-member approaches: Most simple ice topography based on ridges Assume a wedge of firn Use REMA surface topography
What volume of meltwater would be required to bring water from full basins to areas of buttressing? Note: driving these intermediate Q’s (1 and 2) is the concern that topography might not be the only thing controlling extent, it might also be permeability structure.