Multi-year mosaics of Antarctic ice motion from satellite radar
interferometry: 1995 to 2022
Abstract
Ice motion and ice boundary are critical information for ice sheet
models that project ice evolution in a warming climate. We present four
historical, continent-wide, maps of Antarctic ice motion and boundary
for the time period 1995-2022. The results reveal no change in 2/3rd of
the interior regions, block rotation and rift propagation at ice shelf
fronts, and widespread glacier speedup that propagates from 10 to 100
km’s inland. Speedup affects the entire drainage of the Amundsen Sea
Embayment sector, in West Antarctica; the entire west coast of the
Antarctic Peninsula down to GeorgeVI Ice Shelf; the east coast down to
Larsen C Ice Shelf; Getz Ice Shelf, Hull and Land glaciers in West
Antarctica; Matusevitch, Ninnis, Mertz and Denman glaciers, glaciers in
Porpoise and Vincennes Bay, and Robert, Wilma and Rayner glaciers in
Enderby Land, in East Antarctica. We attribute the changes to faster
melting by warmer ocean waters.