Dow, Christine (University of Waterloo)

Purpose

The state of the subglacial environment is a first-order control on the flow of overlying ice. With greater volumes of water reaching the ice-bed interface in a warming world, basal hydrology development is a direct link between the impacts of climate change on ice dynamics and resulting sea-level rise. The difficulty of access to subglacial environments has hindered a detailed understanding of basal processes and vital questions remain about the role of water at the base of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets and in smaller but highly vulnerable valley glaciers. Use of numerical models is becoming increasingly beneficial for examining basal hydrology with the introduction of sophisticated 2D coupled models representing efficient and inefficient drainage. When this is combined with data inputs from satellite remote sensing, geophysical surveys and in situ data collection, it provides a powerful method for addressing areas where knowledge is currently lacking.