Monday, 27 August 2007 - 2:30 PM
1.P1.B-4

Flow dynamics and mass balance of the ice sheet above the southern part of subglacial Lake Vostok

Reinhard Dietrich1, Sergey V. Popov2, Andreas Richter1, Valery Lukin3, Mathias Fritsche1, Vladimir Lipenkov4, Alexander Yuskevich5, Jens Wendt6, Anton Senatorov5, and Valery N. Masolov2. (1) Institut fuer Planetare Geodaesie, TU Dresden, Helmholtzstr. 10, Dresden, 01062, Germany, (2) Polar Marine Geosurvey Expedition (PMGE), 24, Pobeda Str., St. Petersburg, Lomonosov, 188512, Russia, (3) Russian Antarctic Expedition, 38 Bering Str., Saint Petersburg, Russia, (4) Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, 38 Bering Str., Saint Petersburg, Russia, (5) Aerogeodeziya, 8 Bukharestskaya Str., Saint Petersburg, Russia, (6) Centro de Estudios Científicos, Valdivia, Chile

In the Antarctic field season 2001/2002, geodetic GPS markers were installed in and around Vostok station and first GPS observations were carried out. In the subsequent field season, these observations were repeated. During the field season 2006/2007, these markers were observed for the third time by GPS. These repeated in-situ measurements provide the basis for the precise determination of the local flow direction and velocity of the ice sheet, as well as height change rates in a global reference frame. A strain analysis of the changes of the internal geometry between the markers yields the convergence/divergence and acceleration of the ice flow around Vostok station.

Here, we combine the geometrical marker displacements determined by geodetic means with precise ice thickness data based on ground-based radar-echo sounding and representative surface accumulation rates in order to conclude the mass balance state of both the floating ice sheet and the subglacial water body.

[Manuscript]

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