Estimating water volume stored in the south-eastern Greenland firn aquifer using magnetic-resonance soundings

Anatoly Legchenko; Clément Miège; Lora S. Koenig; Richard R. Forster; Olivia Miller; D. K. Solomon; Nicholas Schmerr; Lynn Montgomery; Stefan Ligtenberg; Ludovic Brucker

doi:10.1016/j.jappgeo.2018.01.005

Estimating water volume stored in the south-eastern Greenland firn aquifer using magnetic-resonance soundings

Anatoly Legchenko^*, Clément Miège, Lora S. Koenig, Richard R. Forster, Olivia Miller, D. K. Solomon, Nicholas Schmerr, Lynn Montgomery, Stefan Ligtenberg, Ludovic Brucker

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Recent observations of the Greenland ice sheet show an increase of the area affected by progressive melt of snow and ice, thus resulting in production of the additional meltwater. In 2011, an important storage of meltwater in the firn has been observed in the S-E Greenland. This water does not freeze during the wintertime and forms a perennial firn aquifer. The aquifer spatial extent has been initially monitored with combined ground and airborne radar observations, but these geophysical techniques are not able to inform us on the amount of meltwater stored at depth. In this study, we use the magnetic resonance soundings (MRS) method for estimating the volume of water stored in the Greenland ice sheet firn and mapping its spatial variability. Our study area covers a firn aquifer along a 16-km E-W transect, ranging between elevations of 1520 and 1760 m. In July 2015 and July 2016, we performed MRS measurements that allow estimating the water volume in the studied area as well as the one-year water volume evolution. Water storage is not homogeneous, fluctuating between 0.2 and 2 m³/m², and contains discontinuities in the hydrodynamic properties. We estimate an average volume of water stored in the firn in 2016 to be 0.76 m³/m², which corresponds to a 0.76-m-thick layer of bulk water. MRS monitoring reveals that from April 2015 to July 2016 the volume of water stored at the location of our transect increases by about 36%. We found MRS-estimated depth to water in a good agreement with that obtained with the ground penetrating radar (GPR).

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	11-20
Number of pages	10
Journal	Journal of Applied Geophysics
Volume	150
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jappgeo.2018.01.005
Publication status	Published - 1 Mar 2018

Funding

Our work was supported by a grant (Investissements d'avenir – ANR10 LABX56) from Labex OSUG@2020 . The authors acknowledge the French National Program (ANR)” Investment for Future - Excellency Equipment” project EQUIPEX CRITEX (grant # ANR-11-EQPX-0011) provided MRS equipment for the fieldwork. The field study in Greenland was made possible due to financial support provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation (Proposal Number: NSF-PLR-1417987 and NSF-PLR-1417993 ). We acknowledge CH2MHILL Polar Services for organizing the field logistics and thank them for an outstanding support during the 2015 and 2016 expeditions.

Keywords

Firn aquifer
Greenland ice sheet
MRS
SNMR
Water volume estimate

Access to Document

10.1016/j.jappgeo.2018.01.005

1-s2.0-S0926985117308923-mainFinal published version, 2.02 MBLicence: Taverne

Cite this

@article{380641afc60c487aa5ebf9b241ea7dc6,

title = "Estimating water volume stored in the south-eastern Greenland firn aquifer using magnetic-resonance soundings",

abstract = "Recent observations of the Greenland ice sheet show an increase of the area affected by progressive melt of snow and ice, thus resulting in production of the additional meltwater. In 2011, an important storage of meltwater in the firn has been observed in the S-E Greenland. This water does not freeze during the wintertime and forms a perennial firn aquifer. The aquifer spatial extent has been initially monitored with combined ground and airborne radar observations, but these geophysical techniques are not able to inform us on the amount of meltwater stored at depth. In this study, we use the magnetic resonance soundings (MRS) method for estimating the volume of water stored in the Greenland ice sheet firn and mapping its spatial variability. Our study area covers a firn aquifer along a 16-km E-W transect, ranging between elevations of 1520 and 1760 m. In July 2015 and July 2016, we performed MRS measurements that allow estimating the water volume in the studied area as well as the one-year water volume evolution. Water storage is not homogeneous, fluctuating between 0.2 and 2 m3/m2, and contains discontinuities in the hydrodynamic properties. We estimate an average volume of water stored in the firn in 2016 to be 0.76 m3/m2, which corresponds to a 0.76-m-thick layer of bulk water. MRS monitoring reveals that from April 2015 to July 2016 the volume of water stored at the location of our transect increases by about 36%. We found MRS-estimated depth to water in a good agreement with that obtained with the ground penetrating radar (GPR).",

keywords = "Firn aquifer, Greenland ice sheet, MRS, SNMR, Water volume estimate",

author = "Anatoly Legchenko and Cl{\'e}ment Mi{\`e}ge and Koenig, {Lora S.} and Forster, {Richard R.} and Olivia Miller and Solomon, {D. K.} and Nicholas Schmerr and Lynn Montgomery and Stefan Ligtenberg and Ludovic Brucker",

year = "2018",

month = mar,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1016/j.jappgeo.2018.01.005",

language = "English",

volume = "150",

pages = "11--20",

journal = "Journal of Applied Geophysics",

issn = "0926-9851",

publisher = "Elsevier BV",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Estimating water volume stored in the south-eastern Greenland firn aquifer using magnetic-resonance soundings

AU - Legchenko, Anatoly

AU - Miège, Clément

AU - Koenig, Lora S.

AU - Forster, Richard R.

AU - Miller, Olivia

AU - Solomon, D. K.

AU - Schmerr, Nicholas

AU - Montgomery, Lynn

AU - Ligtenberg, Stefan

AU - Brucker, Ludovic

PY - 2018/3/1

Y1 - 2018/3/1

N2 - Recent observations of the Greenland ice sheet show an increase of the area affected by progressive melt of snow and ice, thus resulting in production of the additional meltwater. In 2011, an important storage of meltwater in the firn has been observed in the S-E Greenland. This water does not freeze during the wintertime and forms a perennial firn aquifer. The aquifer spatial extent has been initially monitored with combined ground and airborne radar observations, but these geophysical techniques are not able to inform us on the amount of meltwater stored at depth. In this study, we use the magnetic resonance soundings (MRS) method for estimating the volume of water stored in the Greenland ice sheet firn and mapping its spatial variability. Our study area covers a firn aquifer along a 16-km E-W transect, ranging between elevations of 1520 and 1760 m. In July 2015 and July 2016, we performed MRS measurements that allow estimating the water volume in the studied area as well as the one-year water volume evolution. Water storage is not homogeneous, fluctuating between 0.2 and 2 m3/m2, and contains discontinuities in the hydrodynamic properties. We estimate an average volume of water stored in the firn in 2016 to be 0.76 m3/m2, which corresponds to a 0.76-m-thick layer of bulk water. MRS monitoring reveals that from April 2015 to July 2016 the volume of water stored at the location of our transect increases by about 36%. We found MRS-estimated depth to water in a good agreement with that obtained with the ground penetrating radar (GPR).

AB - Recent observations of the Greenland ice sheet show an increase of the area affected by progressive melt of snow and ice, thus resulting in production of the additional meltwater. In 2011, an important storage of meltwater in the firn has been observed in the S-E Greenland. This water does not freeze during the wintertime and forms a perennial firn aquifer. The aquifer spatial extent has been initially monitored with combined ground and airborne radar observations, but these geophysical techniques are not able to inform us on the amount of meltwater stored at depth. In this study, we use the magnetic resonance soundings (MRS) method for estimating the volume of water stored in the Greenland ice sheet firn and mapping its spatial variability. Our study area covers a firn aquifer along a 16-km E-W transect, ranging between elevations of 1520 and 1760 m. In July 2015 and July 2016, we performed MRS measurements that allow estimating the water volume in the studied area as well as the one-year water volume evolution. Water storage is not homogeneous, fluctuating between 0.2 and 2 m3/m2, and contains discontinuities in the hydrodynamic properties. We estimate an average volume of water stored in the firn in 2016 to be 0.76 m3/m2, which corresponds to a 0.76-m-thick layer of bulk water. MRS monitoring reveals that from April 2015 to July 2016 the volume of water stored at the location of our transect increases by about 36%. We found MRS-estimated depth to water in a good agreement with that obtained with the ground penetrating radar (GPR).

KW - Firn aquifer

KW - Greenland ice sheet

KW - MRS

KW - SNMR

KW - Water volume estimate

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85044847408&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.jappgeo.2018.01.005

DO - 10.1016/j.jappgeo.2018.01.005

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85044847408

SN - 0926-9851

VL - 150

SP - 11

EP - 20

JO - Journal of Applied Geophysics

JF - Journal of Applied Geophysics

ER -

Estimating water volume stored in the south-eastern Greenland firn aquifer using magnetic-resonance soundings

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this