Ground-penetrating radar studies in Svalbard aimed to the calculation of the ice volume of its glaciers

Abstract

During the period 1999-2014, the Group of Numerical Simulation in Sciences and Engineering of Universidad Politécnica de Madrid carried out many ground-penetrating radar campaigns in Svalbard, aimed to the study of glacier ice-thickness and the physical properties of glacier ice. The regions covered were Nordenskiöld Land, Wedel Jarlsberg Land, Sabine Land and Nordaustlandet. We here present a review of these works, focused on the aspects related to the estimate of the volume of individual glaciers and its extrapolation to the entire set of Svalbard glaciers, for which the authors estimate a total volume of 6700±835 km3, o 17±2 mm in sea-level equivalent.

Keywords

• glacier
• ground-penetrating radar
• svalbard
• ice thickness
• volume