Mass Balance Assessment of the Amery Ice Shelf Basin, East Antarctica

Abstract

The Lambert Glacier-Amery Ice Shelf (AIS) System is the largest glacial system in East Antarctica. Accurate estimation of its mass balance is imperative for reducing the uncertainty in evaluating the sea-level contribution from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Here, we present a comprehensive investigation of the mass balance of the AIS basin. We measured the ice velocity with Sentinel-1 synthetic-aperture radar data acquired in 2016. The ice thickness data from the radio echo-sounding measurements were combined with the surface mass balance data from the new Regional Atmospheric Climate Model, from which the mass balance of the AIS basin was estimated. Our estimates suggest a slight positive mass balance of 3.1 ± 9.4 Gt/year in 2016. We found that the short-term fluctuations in the surface mass balance dramatically affect the AIS mass balance. A comparison with previous estimates confirms the long-term positive mass balance trend.