Presenter(s): Ryan Obermeyer − Math, Spatial Data Science And Technology
Faculty Mentor(s): David Sutherland, Kiya Riverman
Poster 52
Research Area: Physical Science
Funding: NSF grant no. 1543012
The West Antarctic Peninsula has over 300 glaciers, all with unique environmental conditions. The peninsula is losing ice, but it is not fully understood what drives retreat rates for individual glaciers. The Antarctic Peninsula is rich in available data, but comparatively little analysis of glacial environmental controls has been performed. We used a Landsat-7 and laser altimetry derived grounding line, infrared temperature data, bathymetry swath data, Regional Ocean Modeling runs, and calculated retreat rates to find correlations between retreat and environment. Previous work has shown that glaciers in the region are sensitive to ocean temperatures. Glaciers in the northern portion of the peninsula interact with cooler ocean currents and have lower retreat rates than the glaciers in the south. We found a latitudinal cut off, north of which floating glaciers rarely exist. Warmer air temperatures in the northern portion of the peninsula may limit the prevalence of floating glaciers. In contrast, the south with cooler air and warmer water allows glaciers to interact with the ocean. Model runs of Circumpolar Deep Water flow highlight which glaciers are in contact with warmer water. There is correlation between glacial retreat and contact with Circumpolar Deep Water. These findings allow us to predict that as air temperatures in Antarctica continue to rise, the latitudinal cut off for floating glaciers could move south, and less ice will be interacting with the ocean. This means that there is potential for retreat rates to temporarily decline as glaciers will be less affected by ocean temperatures.