Volume of Martian midlatitude glaciers from radar observations and ice flow modeling

Nanna Bjørnholt Karlsson; L S Schmidt; Christine Schøtt Hvidberg

doi:10.1002/2015gl063219

Volume of Martian midlatitude glaciers from radar observations and ice flow modeling

Nanna Bjørnholt Karlsson, L S Schmidt, Christine Schøtt Hvidberg

Physics of Ice, Climate and Earth

31 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Numerous glacier-like forms have been identified in the midlatitudes of Mars, and within recent years the acquisition of radar sounding data has revealed that the features are chiefly composed of water ice. Here we use radar observations in combination with ice flow models and inverse methods to calculate the volume of ice present at the midlatitudes of Mars. In order to obtain ice thicknesses, we infer the yield stress of the ice deposits, and we find that they are consistently lower than those of most terrestrial glaciers. We estimate the present ice volume of lobate debris aprons (identified by Levy et al. (2014)) on Mars to correspond to 1.55 · 10⁵ km³ with an uncertainty of 25%. This corresponds to a global ice cover of 1.1m. Thus, the water ice found at midlatitudes is an important water reservoir, and an important part of the global surface ice budget.

Original language	English
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	42
Issue number	8
Pages (from-to)	2627-2633
ISSN	0094-8276
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/2015gl063219
Publication status	Published - 28 Apr 2015

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title = "Volume of Martian midlatitude glaciers from radar observations and ice flow modeling",

abstract = "Numerous glacier-like forms have been identified in the midlatitudes of Mars, and within recent years the acquisition of radar sounding data has revealed that the features are chiefly composed of water ice. Here we use radar observations in combination with ice flow models and inverse methods to calculate the volume of ice present at the midlatitudes of Mars. In order to obtain ice thicknesses, we infer the yield stress of the ice deposits, and we find that they are consistently lower than those of most terrestrial glaciers. We estimate the present ice volume of lobate debris aprons (identified by Levy et al. (2014)) on Mars to correspond to 1.55 · 105 km3 with an uncertainty of 25%. This corresponds to a global ice cover of 1.1m. Thus, the water ice found at midlatitudes is an important water reservoir, and an important part of the global surface ice budget.",

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T1 - Volume of Martian midlatitude glaciers from radar observations and ice flow modeling

AU - Karlsson, Nanna Bjørnholt

AU - Schmidt, L S

AU - Hvidberg, Christine Schøtt

PY - 2015/4/28

Y1 - 2015/4/28

N2 - Numerous glacier-like forms have been identified in the midlatitudes of Mars, and within recent years the acquisition of radar sounding data has revealed that the features are chiefly composed of water ice. Here we use radar observations in combination with ice flow models and inverse methods to calculate the volume of ice present at the midlatitudes of Mars. In order to obtain ice thicknesses, we infer the yield stress of the ice deposits, and we find that they are consistently lower than those of most terrestrial glaciers. We estimate the present ice volume of lobate debris aprons (identified by Levy et al. (2014)) on Mars to correspond to 1.55 · 105 km3 with an uncertainty of 25%. This corresponds to a global ice cover of 1.1m. Thus, the water ice found at midlatitudes is an important water reservoir, and an important part of the global surface ice budget.

AB - Numerous glacier-like forms have been identified in the midlatitudes of Mars, and within recent years the acquisition of radar sounding data has revealed that the features are chiefly composed of water ice. Here we use radar observations in combination with ice flow models and inverse methods to calculate the volume of ice present at the midlatitudes of Mars. In order to obtain ice thicknesses, we infer the yield stress of the ice deposits, and we find that they are consistently lower than those of most terrestrial glaciers. We estimate the present ice volume of lobate debris aprons (identified by Levy et al. (2014)) on Mars to correspond to 1.55 · 105 km3 with an uncertainty of 25%. This corresponds to a global ice cover of 1.1m. Thus, the water ice found at midlatitudes is an important water reservoir, and an important part of the global surface ice budget.

U2 - 10.1002/2015gl063219

DO - 10.1002/2015gl063219

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0094-8276

VL - 42

SP - 2627

EP - 2633

JO - Geophysical Research Letters

JF - Geophysical Research Letters

IS - 8

ER -

Volume of Martian midlatitude glaciers from radar observations and ice flow modeling

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