Contemporary ice sheet thinning drives subglacial groundwater exfiltration with potential feedbacks on glacier flow.

Observations indicate that groundwater-laden sedimentary aquifers are extensive beneath large portions of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. A reduction in the mechanical loading of aquifers is known to lead to groundwater exfiltration, a discharge of groundwater from the aquifer. Here, we provide a simple expression predicting exfiltration rates under a thinning ice sheet.

Biogeochemical and historical drivers of microbial community composition and structure in sediments from Mercer Subglacial Lake, West Antarctica.

Ice streams that flow into Ross Ice Shelf are underlain by water-saturated sediments, a dynamic hydrological system, and subglacial lakes that intermittently discharge water downstream across grounding zones of West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). A 2.06 m composite sediment profile was recently recovered from Mercer Subglacial Lake, a 15 m deep water cavity beneath a 1087 m thick portion of the Mercer Ice Stream.

A dynamic saline groundwater system mapped beneath an Antarctic ice stream.

Antarctica's fast-flowing ice streams drain the ice sheet, with their velocity modulated by subglacial water systems. Current knowledge of these water systems is limited to the shallow portions near the ice-bed interface, but hypothesized deeper groundwater could also influence ice streaming. Here, we use magnetotelluric and passive seismic data from Whillans Ice Stream, West Antarctica, to provide the first observations of deep sub-ice stream groundwater.

Interannual variations in meltwater input to the Southern Ocean from Antarctic ice shelves.

Ocean-driven basal melting of Antarctica's floating ice shelves accounts for about half of their mass loss in steady-state, where gains in ice shelf mass are balanced by losses. Ice shelf thickness changes driven by varying basal melt rates modulate mass loss from the grounded ice sheet and its contribution to sea level, and the changing meltwater fluxes influence climate processes in the Southern Ocean. Existing continent-wide melt rate datasets have no temporal variability, introducing uncertainties in sea level and climate projections.

Pervasive ice sheet mass loss reflects competing ocean and atmosphere processes.

Quantifying changes in Earth's ice sheets and identifying the climate drivers are central to improving sea level projections. We provide unified estimates of grounded and floating ice mass change from 2003 to 2019 using NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) and ICESat-2 satellite laser altimetry. Our data reveal patterns likely linked to competing climate processes: Ice loss from coastal Greenland (increased surface melt), Antarctic ice shelves (increased ocean melting), and Greenland and Antarctic outlet glaciers (dynamic response to ocean melting) was partially compensated by mass gains over ice sheet interiors (increased snow accumulation).

Multidecadal observations of the Antarctic ice sheet from restored analog radar records.

Airborne radar sounding can measure conditions within and beneath polar ice sheets. In Antarctica, most digital radar-sounding data have been collected in the last 2 decades, limiting our ability to understand processes that govern longer-term ice-sheet behavior. Here, we demonstrate how analog radar data collected over 40 y ago in Antarctica can be combined with modern records to quantify multidecadal changes.

A decade of progress in observing and modelling Antarctic subglacial water systems.

In the decade since the discovery of active Antarctic subglacial water systems by detection of subtle surface displacements, much progress has been made in our understanding of these dynamic systems. Here, we present some of the key results of observations derived from ICESat laser altimetry, CryoSat-2 radar altimetry, Operation IceBridge airborne laser altimetry, satellite image differencing and ground-based continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) experiments deployed in hydrologically active regions. These observations provide us with an increased understanding of various lake systems in Antarctica: Whillans/Mercer Ice Streams, Crane Glacier, Recovery Ice Stream, Byrd Glacier and eastern Wilkes Land.