Ice shelf density reconstructed from optical televiewer borehole logging

Bryn Hubbard, Jean-louis Tison, Morgane Philippe, Billie Heene, Frank Pattyn, Terry Malone, Johannes Freitag

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Optical televiewer luminosity logs are compared with densities measured gravimetrically on 520 snow, firn and ice samples from two locations of similar annual temperature (~ − 14 °C) and contrasting accumulation rates (0.23 and 0.43 m w.e. per year) on the Roi Baudouin Ice Shelf, Antarctica. At the scale of ≥10-1 m, an inverse exponential relationship (R2 = 0.96) is recorded between density and luminosity, indicating (i) that OPTV luminosity provides an effective proxy for density at such ice shelves, and (ii) that densities may be reconstructed from boreholes drilled elsewhere by hot water without the need for core material. Our analysis also suggests that this relationship may hold for newly-formed ice as well as for snow and firn. At the scale of ≤10-1 m, both luminosity and density show similar patterns, but precise correlation is confounded by detailed differences between the two records.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5882-5887
JournalGeophysical Research Letters
Volume40
Issue number22
Early online date19 Nov 2013
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 Nov 2013

Keywords

  • optical televiewing
  • firn density
  • ice shelf density
  • OPTV

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