IcePod: Imaging Ice-Ocean Process from Top to Bottom

Abstract:

Resolving the future of the ice in the polar regions requires understanding of the changing ice from top to bottom from the center of the ice sheets to the margin where ice interacts with the polar oceans. The IcePod is an imaging system developed to study the ice sheets and polar oceans in a comprehensive fashion from an LC-130. The system has been developed for initial deployment on the New York National Guard’s ski-equipped LC-130s. The IcePod can resolve high resolution surface elevation with a scanning laser and visual cameras, the temperature of the surface with an infrared camera, the thickness and layering of the shallow snow and ice with a high frequency radar and the thickness of the ice sheet with an ice penetrating radar. The IcePod can be moved between aircraft in less than four hours and can be operated on aircraft on routine cargo missions to skiways.

Here we present IcePod ice-ocean imaging from the top to the bottom of several major outlet glaciers in western Greenland. The data, acquired in July 2014, demonstrates the broad capabilities of the IcePod instrumentation suite. The IcePod resolved the structure of the ice sheet from the accumulation zone to the calving front of Eqip Glacier and 4 adjacent outlet glacier systems. High resolution mapping of the calving front and the upwelling meltwater plumes provides new insights into the structure and dynamics of the turbulent mixing at the ice-ocean interface. Mapping of the ice sheet margin provides insights into the connections between the surface meltwater and the fate of the subglacial water at the ice sheet base. The Greenland data includes airport passes in every flight for calibration of both the lidar and camera systems.

An expanded IcePod instrumentation suite will include a gravity meter and a magnetometer. The gravity meter can be used to determine the bathymetry beneath ice shelves. Together the gravimeter and the magnetometer can be used to constrain the regional tectonic frameworks.

In November 2014, the IcePod system will be operated in Antarctica targeting the formation of polynyas, the Ross Ice Shelf structure and stability and the distribution of subglacial water in East Antarctica.