Collaborative Research: A New Method of Observing Variability in Freshwater Discharge from Arctic and Antarctic Marine-Terminating Glaciers using Passive Acoustic Measurements

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

Erin C Pettit Unviersity of Alaska Fairbanks Shad R O?Neel University of Colorado at Boulder Jeffrey A Nystuen University of Washington Proposal #0806143 Investigators from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of Washington have received funding to test a novel method for measuring the magnitude and variability of subglacially discharged water. Understanding such discharges is one of the greatest gaps in our knowledge of ice sheet and glacier mass balance, but we currently lack a method of measuring the discharges. These investigators will use acoustic signals from turbulent upwelling, bubble formation, and sediment collisions to quantify the magnitude and variability of subglacial freshwater discharge. The research will be documented by a filmmaker from Montana State University?s Science and Natural History Filmmaking program.