Project Title

NSFGEO-NERC: Investigating the Direct Influence of Meltwater on Antarctic Ice Sheet Dynamics

Summary

Event Number:
I-347-E
NSF / OPP Award 2053169

Program Director:
Dr. Kelly Brunt

ASC POC/Implementer:
Allison Barden / Diane Hutt

Principal Investigator(s)

Dr. Jonathan Kingslake
jonnyk@ldeo.columbia.edu
Columbia University
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
New York, New York

Location

Supporting Stations: Special Project
Research Locations: Flask Glacier

Description

Surface melting is widespread in Antarctica and predicted to increase significantly as the continent warms. This US-UK project will take steps toward understanding and predicting these changes. The team will test three hypotheses: (1) Short-term changes in ice velocity indicated by satellite data result from surface meltwater reaching the bed of outlet glaciers in the Antarctic Peninsula; (2) this is widespread in Antarctica today; and (3) this results in a measurable increase in mean annual ice discharge. The team will also conduct a continentwide remote sensing survey using synthetic aperture radar and multispectral imagery to comprehensively map meltwater on grounded ice and short-term velocity variations.

Field Season Overview

In conjunction with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), this project spans three seasons of field work scheduled in 2024-25, 2025-26, and 2026-27 for the installation, maintenance, and removal of survey equipment respectively. Fieldwork will be conducted on Flask Glacier on the Antarctic Peninsula deploying a global navigation satellite system (GNSS), passive seismometers, uncrewed aerial systems (UASs), automated weather stations (AWSs), and ice-penetrating radar.

For the 2025-26 season, United States Antarctic Program (USAP) support will involve cargo and grantee travel support. Cargo will be shipped to Punta Arenas, Chile, and transferred to BAS. BAS will handle cargo transportation to Rothera Station and into the field. Two USAP participants will deploy via the USAP travel system to Punta Arenas before flying to Rothera Station and joining the field team, including BAS field guides. Field gear and camp rations will also be supplied by BAS. From November 2025 to January 2026, the team will conduct maintenance to raise and collect data from installed instruments at Flask Glacier (i.e., differential global navigation satellite system [DGNSS] systems, autonomous phase-sensitive radar [ApRES] systems, thermistor strings, passive seismic, and an AWS). The team will deploy a fixed wing UAS equipped with single-frequency GNSS and a single-lens reflex (SLR) camera on repeat flights along a ~40-kilometer roundtrip survey grid. A BAS team will return in the 2026-27 field season to collect and retrograde all instrumentation.

Deploying Team Members