ICE FLOW VELOCITY MAPPING IN EAST ANTARCTICA USING HISTORICAL IMAGES FROM 1960s TO 1980s: RECENT PROGRESS

Abstract

Recent research indicates that the estimated elevation changes and associated mass balance in East Antarctica are of some degree of uncertainty; a light accumulation has occurred in its vast inland regions, while mass loss in Wilkes Land appears significant. It is necessary to study the mass change trend in the context of a long period of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS). The input-output method based on surface ice flow velocity and ice thickness is one of the most important ways to estimate the mass balance, which can provide longer-term knowledge of mass balance because of the availability of the early satellites in 1960s. In this study, we briefly describe the method of extracting ice velocity based on the historical optical images from 1960s to 1980s. Based on the draft ice velocity map of the EAIS using this method, we conduct a series of validation experiments, including comparisons with in-situ measurement, existing historical maps and rock outcrop dataset. Finally, we use the input-output method to estimate mass balance in some regions of EAIS using the generated velocity map.