Taking the temperature of Antarctica with joint inversion of geophysical information - Antarctic Heat 2

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Different methods have been applied in recent years to quantify the thermal structure and most specific the geothermal heat flow over Antarctica. In the first phase of the project, we have demonstrated that such models are often incompatible as they are based on contradicting assumptions not agreeing with the interdependencies between the geophysical products. Still, the available pieces of geophysical information from satellite observations, airborne geophysical data, geological and seismological models can be used in automatic methods like machine learning to provide a new assessment of the geothermal heat flow and its uncertainty. Critical is hereby a careful evaluation of the applied data sets. In addition to data quality, regional data sets lack the details required for ice-sheet modelling, but local data sets may lack the spatial coverage for a systematic analysis. By coupling novel geophysical inverse methods with rock properties available mainly at the coasts of Antarctica, we will predict thermal and geophysical parameters into the continent. These will be coupled with thermal parameters based on ice temperature profiles to provide a fully coupled temperature model for the transition between the Solid Earth and Cryosphere. We will furthermore explore the sensitivity of these products for ice-sheet dynamics.