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. 2017 Nov 16;44(21):11051-11061.
doi: 10.1002/2017GL074954. Epub 2017 Nov 1.

BedMachine v3: Complete Bed Topography and Ocean Bathymetry Mapping of Greenland From Multibeam Echo Sounding Combined With Mass Conservation

M Morlighem  1 , C N Williams  2   3 , E Rignot  1   4 , L An  1 , J E Arndt  5 , J L Bamber  2 , G Catania  6 , N Chauché  7 , J A Dowdeswell  8 , B Dorschel  5 , I Fenty  4 , K Hogan  9 , I Howat  10 , A Hubbard  7   11 , M Jakobsson  12 , T M Jordan  2 , K K Kjeldsen  13   14   15 , R Millan  1 , L Mayer  16 , J Mouginot  1 , B P Y Noël  17 , C O'Cofaigh  18 , S Palmer  19 , S Rysgaard  20   21   22 , H Seroussi  4 , M J Siegert  23 , P Slabon  5 , F Straneo  24 , M R van den Broeke  17 , W Weinrebe  5 , M Wood  1 , K B Zinglersen  21
Affiliations

BedMachine v3: Complete Bed Topography and Ocean Bathymetry Mapping of Greenland From Multibeam Echo Sounding Combined With Mass Conservation

M Morlighem et al. Geophys Res Lett. .

Abstract

Greenland's bed topography is a primary control on ice flow, grounding line migration, calving dynamics, and subglacial drainage. Moreover, fjord bathymetry regulates the penetration of warm Atlantic water (AW) that rapidly melts and undercuts Greenland's marine-terminating glaciers. Here we present a new compilation of Greenland bed topography that assimilates seafloor bathymetry and ice thickness data through a mass conservation approach. A new 150 m horizontal resolution bed topography/bathymetric map of Greenland is constructed with seamless transitions at the ice/ocean interface, yielding major improvements over previous data sets, particularly in the marine-terminating sectors of northwest and southeast Greenland. Our map reveals that the total sea level potential of the Greenland ice sheet is 7.42 ± 0.05 m, which is 7 cm greater than previous estimates. Furthermore, it explains recent calving front response of numerous outlet glaciers and reveals new pathways by which AW can access glaciers with marine-based basins, thereby highlighting sectors of Greenland that are most vulnerable to future oceanic forcing.

Keywords: Greenland; bathymetry; glaciology; mass conservation; multibeam echo sounding; radar echo sounding.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Data coverage, including ice‐penetrating radar measurements (Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, High CApability Radar Sounder, University of Denmark, Uppsala University, Pathfinder Advanced Radar Ice Sounder, Alfred Wegener Institute) and ocean bathymetry (from single‐beam data in dark blue), and (b) BedMachine v3 bed topography sources, which include mass conservation (MC), kriging, Greenland Ice Mapping Project (GIMP) (Howat et al., 2014), RTopo‐2/IBCAO v3 (Jakobsson et al., 2012; Schaffer et al., 2016), and bathymetry data from multibeam and gravity inversions acquired after the compilation of IBCAO v3.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) BedMachine v3 bed topography (m), color coded between −1500 m and +1500 m with respect to mean sea level, with areas below sea level in blue and (b) regions below sea level (light pink) that are connected to the ocean and maintain a depth below 200 m (dark pink) and that are continuously deeper than 300 m below sea level (dark red). The thin white line shows the current ice sheet extent.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Bed topography for different sectors of Greenland: (a) the region of Savissuaq Gletscher, (b) Hayes Gletscher, (c) Illullip Sermia, (d) Mogens Heinesen N, (e) Heimdal Gletscher, and (f) Skinfaxe. The yellow/red lines indicate the ice front position between 1985 and today from Landsat data, and the white dotted line shows the profile used in Figure 4. The topography is color coded between −700 m and 800 m, and contours are shown every 200 m from −800 m to 200 m above sea level. Some glaciers, such as the one 10 km northwest of Heimdal Gletscher, were not mapped using MC.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Surface and bed topography along six profiles (see white dotted lines in Figure 3) from this study (solid black) and bed from B2013 (dotted red, Bamber et al., 2013) and RTopo‐2 (dotted yellow, Schaffer et al., 2016). Multibeam bathymetry data (MBES) are shown in blue. The vertical lines show the ice front position between 1995 and today.
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