The Ice-Free Topography of Svalbard

Johannes Fürst (1) , Francisco Navarro (2) , Fabien Gillet-Chaulet (3, 4) , Matthias Huss (5, 6) , Geir Moholdt (7) , Xavier Fettweis (8) , Charlotte Lang (8) , Thorsten Seehaus (1) , Songtao Ai (9) , Toby Benham (10) , Douglas Benn (11) , Helgi Björnsson (12) , Julian Dowdeswell (10) , Mariusz Grabiec (13) , Jack Kohler (7) , Ivan Lavrentiev (14) , Katrin Lindbäck (7) , Kjetil Melvold (1, 5, 15) , Rickard Pettersson (16) , David Rippin (17) , Albane Saintenoy (18) , Pablo Sánchez-Gámez (19) , Thomas Schüler (20, 21) , Heïdi Sevestre (11) , Evgeny Vasilenko (22) , Matthias Braun (1)

1 FAU - Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg = University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
2 UPM - CSIC - University Politecnica de Madrid, Centre for Automation and Robotics
3 IGE - Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement
4 Grenoble INP - Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology
5 UNIFR - Université de Fribourg = University of Fribourg
6 Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology
7 Norwegian Polar Institute
8 Université de Liège
9 Wuhan University [China]
10 CAM - University of Cambridge [UK]
11 University of Saint Andrews
12 University of Iceland [Reykjavik]
13 University of Silesia in Katowice
14 Institute of Geography of RAS
15 NVE - Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate
16 Uppsala University
17 University of York [York, UK]
18 GEOPS - Géosciences Paris Sud
19 UPM - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
20 UiO - University of Oslo
21 UNIS - The University Centre in Svalbard
22 Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences

We present a first version of the Svalbard ice-free topography (SVIFT1.0) using a mass conserving approach for mapping glacier ice thickness. SVIFT1.0 is informed by more than 1 million point measurements, totalling more than 8,700 km of thickness profiles. SVIFT1.0 is publicly available and represents the geometric state around the year 2010. Our estimate for the total ice volume is 6,199 km 3 ,equivalent to 1.5-cm sea level rise. The thickness map suggests that 13% of the glacierized area is grounded below sea level. A complementary map of error estimates comprises uncertainties in the thickness surveys as well as in other input variables. Aggregated error estimates are used to define a likely ice-volume range of 5,200–7,300 km 3. The ice front thickness of marine-terminating glaciers is a key quantity for ice loss attribution because it controls the potential ice discharge by iceberg calving into the ocean. We find a mean ice front thickness of 135 m for the archipelago (likely range 123–158 m)

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]; Sciences de la Terre

Johannes Fürst, Francisco Navarro, Fabien Gillet-Chaulet, Matthias Huss, Geir Moholdt, et al.. The Ice-Free Topography of Svalbard. Geophysical Research Letters, 2018, 45 (21), pp.11,760-11,769. ⟨10.1029/2018GL079734⟩. ⟨hal-01967441⟩