Subglacial topography of S Spitsbergen glaciers

Subglacial topography was derived from radio-echo sounding (RES) survey conducted in spring 2008 by the University of Silesia research team (M. Grabiec and J. Jania) in cooperation with the Institute of Geophysics Polish Academy of Sciences (D. Puczko) and the Maria Curie-Sklodowska University (G.Gajek). The profiles were acquired by the radar system equipped with 25 MHz unshielded antenna pulled behind snowmobile. Traces were recorded every 0.5 s, that translates into 1.5-2.0 trace-to-trace distance depending on the vehicle’s velocity. Traces were positioned by GNSS receiver working in differential mode with 3D accuracy ± 1m. In total over 100 km of RES profiles were acquired on Hansbreen, 66 km on Werenskioldbreen and 43 km on Renardbreen. RES data were processed using standard procedure including: DC-offset, time-zero adjustment, 2-D filter, amplitude correction, bandpass filtering and migration. Time-to-depth conversion applied average radio-wave velocity in glacier ice 16.4 cm ns-1 calculated based on CMP analysis performed on Hansbreen in the same season as the GPR profiling. The ice/bed interface was picked up semi-automatically with RMSE 5.3 ns (0.43 m) (Grabiec, 2017). Then the bedrock elevation data were interpolated over studied glaciers taking into account elevation of nonglaciated surroundings (Grabiec 2017) and bathymetry at the front of tidewater Hansbreen (Grabiec et al. 2012). Finally produced 100 m resolution DEMs are in UTM 33X WGS84 reference system. DEM of 300 m resolution is freely available. For 100 m resolution DEM please contact: mariusz.grabiec@us.edu.pl. The data were collected and processed under following projects: • IPY/269/2006 GLACIODYN The dynamic response of Arctic glaciers to global warming • UE FP7-ENV-2008-1 ice2sea Estimating the future contribution of continental ice to sea-level rise • PNRF-22-AI-1/07 AWAKE Arctic Climate and Environment of the Nordic Seas and the Svalbard – Greenland Area • 03/KNOW2/2014 KNOW Leading National Research Centre Reference: Grabiec M., Jania J., Puczko D., Kolondra L., and Budzik T., 2012: Surface and bed morphology of Hansbreen, a tidewater glacier in Spitsbergen. Polish Polar Research 38(2): 111-138. Grabiec M. 2017: Stan i współczesne zmiany systemów lodowcowych południowego Spitsbergenu w świetle badań metodami radarowymi. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, 328 s. Decaux, L., Grabiec, M., Ignatiuk, D., and Jania, J. 2018: Role of discrete recharge from the supraglacial drainage system for modelling of subglacial conduits pattern of Svalbard polythermal glaciers, The Cryosphere Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2017-219, in review.