Analysis of ice-sheet temperature profiles from low-frequency airborne remote sensing

Abstract

Ice internal temperature and basal geothermal heat flux (GHF) are analyzed along a study line in northwestern Greenland. The temperatures were obtained from a previously reported inversion of airborne microwave brightness-temperature spectra. The temperatures vary slowly through the upper ice sheet and more rapidly near the base increasing from ∼259 K near Camp Century to values near the melting point near NorthGRIP. The flow-law rate factor is computed from temperature data and analytic expressions. The rate factor increases from ∼1 × 10-8 to 8 × 10-8 kPa-3 a-1 along the line. A laminar flow model combined with the depth-dependent rate factor is used to estimate horizontal velocity. The modeled surface velocities are about a factor of 10 less than interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) surface velocities. The laminar velocities are fitted to the InSAR velocities through a factor of 8 enhancement of the rate factor for the lower 25% of the column. GHF values retrieved from the brightness temperature spectra increase from ∼55 to 84 mW m-2 from Camp Century to NorthGRIP. A strain heating correction improves agreement with other geophysical datasets near Camp Century and NEEM but differ by ∼15 mW m-2 in the central portion of the profile.