A new inventory of mountain glaciers and ice caps for the Antarctic periphery

Andrew Bliss, Regine Hock, J. Graham Cogley | Source

Abstract

Although the glaciers in the Antarctic periphery make up a large fraction of all mountain glaciers and ice caps on Earth, a detailed glacier inventory of the region is lacking. We compile such an inventory, recording areas, area–altitude distributions, terminus characteristics and volume estimates.Glaciers on the mainland are excluded. The inventory is derived from the Antarctic Digital Databaseand some manual digitization. We additionally rely on satellite imagery, digital elevation models and aflowshed algorithm to classify ice bodies. We find 1133 ice caps and 1619 mountain glaciers covering atotal of 132867 +- 6643km2. Estimated total volume corresponds to 0.121 +- 0.010m sea-level equivalent.Of the total glacier area, 99% drains either into iceshelves (63%) or into the ocean (36%). The inventory will provide a database for glacier mass-balance assessments, modelling andprojections, and help to reduce the uncertainties in previous studies.

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