iSTAR-D: The contribution to sea-level rise from the Amundsen Sea sector of Antarctica

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The notions of a warming climate, melting ice and rising sea levels are firmly rooted in the public consciousness. In fact, today, while sea level is rising at some 3 cm per decade, the great ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are only contributing a small component, perhaps some 0.5 cm per decade. Nonetheless, it is also established that their contribution to sea level rise is accelerating, by perhaps as much as 0.1 cm per year. In Antarctica, this acceleration is result, in part, of the warming Antarctic Peninsula, but of greater concern, because of the vast quantities of ice backed up in their basins, are the Amundsen sector ice streams; one of which, the Pine Island Glacier, has quadrupled its mass loss in the past decade. What we know about the behavior of these large ice sheets has been established over the past two decades through measurements from successive Earth-orbiting satellites: ERS-1, ERS-2, ENVISAT, GRACE and most recently CryoSat-2. Equally, the satellite estimates remain uncertain; an uncertainty that, as concern increases as to the magnitude of the rising contribution, it is increasingly important to close down. This proposal aims to attack this problem directly for the Amundsen sector ice streams.The uncertainties arise because the satellites do not directly observe the mass loss of the ice sheets. There are three different instruments and techniques, satellite altimetry, satellite gravimetry, and SAR interferometry, and each of them contains a bete noir. Satellite altimetry measurements cannot distinguish changes in density from changes in mass. Satellite gravimetry cannot distinguish those changes due to mass loss from the ice from those due to the motion of the underlying solid Earth. SAR interferometry is reliant on an uncertain combination of patchy surface measurements and forecast models. These uncertainties can only be unraveled by other, ground observations that, together with the satellite measurements, can provide a complete picture of the mass loss. This proposal aims to provide these 'missing' measurements, of snow accumulation, of density, and solid Earth motion, over the two decades of the satellite measurements, for the Amundsen sector ice streams.At its heart is a 800 km traverse of the Pine Island glacier basin in the austral summers of 2012/3 and 2013/4. Two tracked vehicles, will progress around the tributaries of the Pine Island Glacier, carrying with them scientists and their equipment. Through a combination of shallow and deeper ice cores, along the traverse, we will obtain a continuous record of the snowfall and its density. We will extrapolate the dated, annual accumulation layers and their density throughout the traverse through an airborne over-flight of a very high resolution, 'snow' radar. In parallel, a separate party, flying out from Union Glacier in West Antarctica, will make annual visits from 2012/3 to rare exposures of the Earth's crust ('nunataks' ) south of the Pine Island Basin. Using automated GPD stations attached to the nunataks, the motion of the solid Earth can be determined. These observations will be used to, first, evaluate the quality of the models of Antarctic accumulation, density and solid Earth motion that are presently used with the satellite data. With this information, we will be able to determine the errors in the historical (from 1992) and on-going series of altimeter, SAR and gravimeter satellites. Second, the data we collect (and other data of Project Partners and beyond) will be used to update these models. Finally, we will generate the best estimate of the contribution to sea level, and its trend in time, throughout the Amundsen sector basins of the West Antarctic ice sheet. The result will also, when combined with the outcome of the 'sister' program of ISTAR-D, provide the best available prediction into the future of these great glacier basins.