REMAWaterRouting

Using REMA tiles to simulate water routing on Antarctic ice shelf surfaces.

Research Questions:

1. Where on the Antarctic ice shelf does melt fill available depressions? 1a. How well does REMA describe current drainage extent/volume in ‘normal’ years? 1b. In ‘warm’ years, when melt flows into areas that don’t usually get covered with lakes, are their extent controlled by surface topography?
2. Where on the Antarctic ice shelf does melt appear in areas overlapping with areas of buttressing
3. How much additional melting is required to fill areas described above as not full?
4. What volume of meltwater would be required to bring water from full basins to areas of buttressing

End-member approaches: Most simple ice topography based on ridges Assume a wedge of firn Use REMA surface topography

What volume of meltwater would be required to bring water from full basins to areas of buttressing? Note: driving these intermediate Q’s (1 and 2) is the concern that topography might not be the only thing controlling extent, it might also be permeability structure.