Temperature investigation and modeling on Filchner- Ronne Ice Shelf, Antarctica
During the German Antarctic field season 1989/90 hot-water drilling was performed on Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf (FRIS) at 77S 52W to investigate the temperature-depth profile and the bottom-melting rate, which are significant parameters for mass and energy-balance studies of the ice shelf. Re-measurements of installed chains in 1991/92 yielded reliable results.Taking glaciological, geodetical and geophysical data on a flow line through the central part of FRIS, we developed a two-dimensional thermal model to re-construct the measurements from a steady-state temperature-depth profile about 550 km upstream on Möllereisstrom. Under consideration of mass- and energy-conservation a basal layer of 350 m of marine ice was calculated with thermal properties, depending on salinity and temperature. In areas with strong basal freezing nearly iso-thermal depth profiles in the marine ice layer are derived. Further downstream in areas of basal melting a nearly cubic temperature-depth profile is observed.