This work examines the effectiveness of spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for investigating seasonally variable glaciological parameters, in particular its ability to discriminate glacier surface facies in order to estimate glacier mass balance. A multitemporal C-band SAR dataset of Nordenskiold Land, Spitsbergen, acquired by the ERS-1 satellite, is used for the analysis, which focuses on mountain glaciers rather than ice sheets. Validating field measurements of ice and snowpack parameters were obtained contemporaneously with two SAR images, prior to and during the ablation season. A general model for the annual backscatter cycle from a sub-polar glacier is derived from SAR data of three glacierised areas. This model reveals two seasonal reversals in the relative magnitude of backscatter from the ice and wet-snow facies, principally through a 10 dB change in the latter; these reversals mark the start and end of the ablation season. It is shown that a combination of winter and summer SAR imagery is necessary to estimate the equilibriumline altitude of a sub-polar glacier. Topographic distortion is the major limiting factor regarding the utilisation of SAR data for studying mountainous glaciers. Existing theoretical models of radar backscatter from snow and ice are validated for three scenarios: glacier ice, dry snow overlying glacier ice, and wet snow, using the in situ measurements. In addition, temporal variations of ice and snowpack parameters observed during the field campaigns are used to predict short-term seasonal changes in backscatter, and to corroborate the model of annual backscatter. ERS-1 SAR data are compared to NIR Landsat TM data in separate analyses of data information content and temporal resolution; the optical data are found to be better for both facies discrimination and obtaining synoptic glaciological information in mountainous regions. However, the Spitsbergen cloud cover is such that useful TM data may not necessarily be acquired in a given year; consequently SAR is the better sensor for obtaining guaranteed synoptic mass balance data for use in climate change studies, or for studying short-term events like glacier surges. These conclusions are shown to apply to the entire European Arctic sector except East Greenland, where the two sensors have similar temporal resolutions. Data from both sensors were integrated to provide an estimation of the synoptic mass balance of Nordenskiold Land for 1991/92; the results, which indicate an overall slightly negative mass balance, demonstrate that elevation is the principal factor governing glacier net mass balance in the region.

The study uses remotely sensed data from (1) air borne altimetry and radio echo sounding, (2) Landsat satellite imagery, and (3) aerial photography, to investigate aspects of the morphology and dynamics of the ice caps of Nordaustlandet, Svalbard. Data collection, methods of reduction and errors are discussed. Three principal topics are examined. First, as a preliminary to comprehensive radio echo sounding operations over Nordaustlandet, the ability of 60 MHz radar equipment to sound ice at or near its melting point was tested over a number of glaciers in Spitsbergen. Ice thickness data were obtained from 38 glaciers. The results are compared with previous geophysical investigations of ice thickness on Spitsbergen, revealing problems concerning existing Soviet radio echo sounding data obtained at higher frequencies. An internal layer echo was interpreted as the bed by Soviet workers. Second, the ice caps of Nordaustlandet, about which little glaciological information was previously available, are described and mapped. The coastline and ice margins are located using corrected satellite imagery. The surface of the ice caps is described in detail, and ice divides and drainage basins are mapped. Synoptic data on relative surface elevations from digitally enhanced Landsat imagery is calibrated using accurate airborne altimetric information available only along flight lines. The morphology of the underlying bedrock, and the thickness of the ice cover above it, is recorded. Ice thickness on Austfonna-Sorfonna reaches 583 m and 28% of the bed is below present sea level. Third, several aspects of the regional glaciology of the Nordaustlandet ice caps are examined. Digital analysis of ice cap surface radiance characteristics provides data on snow line position and mass balance. The spatial and temporal pattern of detector saturation in each band of the Landsat MSS over snow in the polar regions is predicted from analysis of the influence of sun elevation. Regions of ice cap basal melting are identified from enhanced Landsat imagery by the presence of suspended sediment plumes off shore. No plumes are observed off Brasvellbreen, which is probably stagnant and frozen to its bed after a recent surge. The recent fluctuations of 20 outlet glaciers are recorded from enhanced imagery, a method accurate to +150 m. Three groups of basins, with distinctive dynamic behaviour, are defined from an analysis of variations in long profiles and the pattern of driving stresses within the ice caps. First, basins which have surged and are now in the quiescent period between such activity are relatively stagnant. They typically have low surface profiles and driving stresses. Second, several outlet glaciers of southern Vestfonna have marked shear zones separating them from the surrounding ice and also have low surface slopes . They are interpreted as flowing fast over a lubricated bed on a continuous basis and may provide a small scale analogue for ice streams in the large ice sheets. Third, other basins in Nordaustlandet have high marginal driving stresses and relatively steep surface profiles and are interpreted as being frozen to their beds near the margins at least. Although three dynamic classes of basin have been identified, field data from them do not support the analysis and modelling of Budd (1975).

This thesis is concerned with the modelling of sea ice, particularly in regions where it is composed of individual floes interacting through collisions. This has been done by modifying and extending existing models that have demonstrated their ability to simulate sea ice in various Arctic and Antarctic regions. The purpose of this study is the introduction of the representation of floes, in terms of their size and number, into a sea ice model, thus adding a feedback mechanism and a further output to the output fields normally produced by sea ice models, the ice velocity and the ice thickness distribution and the ice concen tration. Many of the physical processes concerning floes that are relevant to a sea ice model have not yet been investigated quantitatively. These aspects of floe behaviour used as model input are calculated from idealized mechanical models of a floe field. These include determinations of floe collision rates, side melting of floes and the cracking of floes in high winds. The strength of the pack ice is investigated, and in particular the effect of open water on the strength is considered. The shape of a plastic yield curve used in the model to determine the ice interaction forces is derived theoretically. The model used includes both thermodynamics and dynamics. The ice thickness characteristics and floe sizes change due to growing and melting, advection, floe cracking, floe collisions, and redistribution processes such as ridging and rafting. Daily wind and temperature data together with long term ocean currents are used as input to drive the model. The results of a six month simulation of the sea ice development in the (Eas t) Greenland region are presented and discussed together with a comparison with the observations.

The record of climate change in Signedalen and Krossfjorden, northwest Spitsbergen, since the Late Weichselian glacial maximum, has been constructed using an integrated analysis of lacustrine, terrestrial and marine sediments. Thirty-four piston cores were taken from two series of linked lakes in Signedalen, fed by three small cirque glaciers. Six further cores were taken from the fjord inlet, Signehamna, into which meltwater from the linked glacier-fed lakes and a further two glaciers drain. Signehamna drains into Lilliehookfjorden, which with Mollerfjorden, combines to form Krossfjorden, from which 16 .cores were made available. Cores were analysed for moisture content, loss-on-ignition, bulk density, grain size, magnetic susceptibility, infra-red stimulated luminescence, by X-radiography and by radioisotopic dating methods, 210Pb and 14C. Bathymetric maps were constructed following echo sounding survey of the lakes. Seventy-two water samples from the linked lakes were used to assess contemporary environmental conditions, and to aid interpretation of sedimentary structures within core sediments. Results of lichenometric survey of moraine ridges and pro-talus deposits in and around Signedalen were analysed using discriminant analysis, and compared with Werner's (1988) lichen growth curve in order to establish a chronology of moraine stabilisation. Seismic records of Krossfjorden have revealed evidence of glacier advance at least as far as the sill separating Krossfjorden from the outer parts of the fjord and shelf associated with the Late Weichselian glacial maximum (Sexton et al., in press). Overlying the basal unit of a possible till , or sediments associated with rapid glacier retreat, is a blanket of homogeneous sediment formed by ice-distal deposition during the Holocene. There is no evidence of Younger Dryas glacier expansion preserved in the marine sediments, or in terrestrial moraines. Denudation rates calculated from lacustrine sediment accumulation infer the presence of smaller glaciers in Signedalen during the Younger Dryas than at present. The early to mid Holocene appears to have been characterised by relatively warm conditions, with much reduced glacier presence in Signedalen. Evidence of Neoglacial cooling, between approximately 3,000 yr BP and 1,500 yr BP, is found in lichenometric recorckof talus deposits, although precise dating of the inception, and duration of this cooling is problematic. No moraine sediments are recorded from this period. The Little Ice Age maximum, dated by licheno~etry to AD 1890, was the most extensive glacier advance to have affected the cirque glaciers of Signedalen and the tidewater glaciers of Krossfjorden, and is associated with the highest denudation rates recorded in the lacustrine sediments. It also appears to have been responsible for the formation of rock glaciers within the protalus deposits of Signedalen. Since this date, a general retreat of glaciers has been interrupted periodically by still-stands or slight readvances when climatic conditions deteriorated.

Predicting the long-term behaviour of present-day ice sheets is hampered by the short timescales of our observations and restricted knowledge of the subglacial environment. Studying palaeoice sheets can help by revealing the nature and amplitude of past centennial- to millennial-scale ice sheet change. This thesis uses glacial sediments and landforms to examine the evolution of the partly marine-based British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) and its bed, in western Scotland. Three zones of the former BIIS are considered: ranging from a mountain ice cap, to a core area of the ice sheet, to a peripheral marine-terminating sector. The topography of the subglacial landscape was an important in uence on the location of dynamic and stable components of the ice sheet. At an ice cap scale, zones of glacier inception and retreat were linked to catchment elevation and size. At the ice sheet scale, the migration of ice divides and thermal boundaries were focused through corridors of low relief subglacial topography. The main west-east ice divide of the BIIS in central Scotland migrated by 60 km, 10% of the ice sheet's width, through one such corridor during the glacial cycle. A major change in the ow regime of the BIIS in western Scotland accompanied the development of a marine-based sector on the Malin Shelf. As the BIIS advanced to the shelf edge, ice ow was drawn westwards { orthogonal to the earlier, geologically controlled, ow pattern. Retreat of the BIIS from the shelf edge occurred at an average rate of 10 m a-1, but was punctuated by at least one episode of accelerated retreat at 100 m a-1. In each zone of the BIIS examined, a rich palimpsest landscape is preserved and the role of earlier glaciations in conditioning or priming the landscape is highlighted. Western Scotland in particular is dominated by features relating to a 'restricted' mountain ice sheet, suggested to have been the prevailing ice sheet mode during the Early and Middle Quaternary. Where the last BIIS was underlain by soft sediments, glacier movement at the bed was facilitated by a combination of basal sliding and a localised mosaic of shallow deforming spots, allowing landform and sediment preservation. In places, till deposition was focused over permeable substrates acting to seal the bed, promote lower e ective pressures, and enhance motion by basal sliding. The modern land surface in western Scotland provides an approximation for the relief of the former glacier bed, and can be used for conceptual palaeoglaciological reconstructions. Areas of focused postglacial deposition have, however, obscured parts of the ice sheet bed, with demonstrable implications for quantitative palaeoglaciological analyses. Methods to improve the representation of former ice sheet bed in these areas are discussed and may be pertinent to future palaeo-ice sheet modelling exercises.

The thesis concerns the analysis and interpretation of data from satellite borne radar altimeters over ice covered ocean surfaces. The applications of radar altimetry are described in detail and consider monitoring global climate change, the role that sea ice plays in the climate system, operational applications and the extension of high precision surface elevation measurements into areas of sea ice. The general nature of sea ice cover is discussed and a list of requirements for sea ice monitoring is provided and the capability of different satellite sensors to satisfy needs is examined. The operation of satellite borne altimeter over non-ocean surfaces is discussed in detail. Theories of radar backscatter over sea ice are described and are used to predict the radar altimeter response to different types of sea ice cover. Methods employed for analysis of altimeter data over sea ice are also described. Data from the Seasat altimeter is examined on a regional and global scale and compared with sea ice climatology. Data from the Geosat altimeter is compared with co-incident imagery from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer and also from airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar. Correlations are observed between the altimeter data and imagery for the ice edge position, zones within the ice cover, new ice and leads, vast floes and the fast ice boundary. An analysis of data collected by the Geosat altimeter over a period of more than two years is used to derive seasonal and inter-annual variations in the total Antarctic sea ice extent. In addition the retrieval of high accuracy elevation measurements over sea ice areas is carried out. These data are used to produce improved maps of sea surface topography over icecovered ocean and provide evidence of the ability of the altimeter to determine sea ice freeboard directly. In addition the changing freeboard of two giant Antarctic tabular icebergs, as measured by the Geosat altimeter, is presented. As a summary the achievements are reviewed and suggestions are made towards directions for further work on present data sets and for future data from the ERS-1 satellite.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.