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RINGS - ice-sheet margins

Data Management Plan

The outcome of the RINGS Action Group will be published as an open-access peer-reviewed article, and the relevant dataset will be released under the CCBY4.0 license to facilitate FAIR use of the action group outputs.


RINGS logoIntroduction and Background

IPCC’s recent Special Report on Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) addresses rapidly increasing sea-level contribution from the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The lack of ice thickness data at the margin of the ice sheet (grounding zone) is pointed out as one of the main sources of uncertainty for accurate estimation of Antarctic ice discharge. It is also the location where the bed topography matters the most as it controls the stability of the grounding zone. There is therefore an urgent need to carry out airborne surveys around the entire Antarctic Ice Sheet margin.

The ice discharge of the Antarctic Ice Sheet to the ocean can be calculated by a combination of ice thickness data and satellite-measured ice flow speed near the margin. While satellites such as Sentinel-1 and Landsat-8 can routinely measure ice-flow speed, limited knowledge of ice thickness leads to large uncertainties in ice discharge and eventually in overall assessments of Antarctic mass balance, estimated as the difference between ice discharge and mass input (snowfall) to the entire ice sheet. Mass balance estimated in this way currently has large discrepancies from other estimates based on gravity changes detected by GRACE/GRACE-FO satellites or ice-elevation changes detected by the CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2 satellites.

Ice thickness changes with time. However, once bed topography is measured using ice-penetrating radar with high precision and positioning control, ice thickness in the future can be monitored using ice sheet surface elevations measured with satellite altimetry missions such as CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2. According to existing BEDMAP and BedMachine compilations, ice thickness for more than half of the Antarctic margin remains inadequately known for estimating ice discharge. Also, availability of bed topography data is not uniform around Antarctica. Even for glaciers that are well studied, data are not always available continuously along the margin. This is because radar data are often collected along the ice flowline, rather than across the glacier. Compiling individual datasets collected for different purposes with different standards is a pragmatic, but not an ideal solution. Systematic collection of new radar data in the vicinity of the margin specifically aiming for ice-discharge estimates is a crucial step to monitor the current status, and predict the future, of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.


Aims, Goals and Objectives

To fill this major knowledge gap across all the margins of Antarctica for the first time, the Antarctic RINGS Action Group will be an ambitious and challenging initiative in a truly international cooperation. The primary goal is to provide more accurate and complete reference bed topography data for robust assessments of ice discharge from all around Antarctica. This dataset will also tremendously improve the accuracy of ice-sheet models by providing a better mapping of the grounding zone. When this dataset is combined with satellite altimetry data over the entire ice sheet, it can also be used to constrain mass input from snowfall to Antarctica, which is currently estimated with regional climate models but hardly validated over a large region. The secondary goals are (1) to better constrain the likelihood and rates of predicted future retreat of the ice-sheet margin by determining basal boundary conditions in adjacent inland areas, (2) to better quantify ice-ocean interactions by providing novel knowledge of the bathymetry of the cavity beneath adjacent ice shelves, and (3) to perceive subglacial hydrology for constraining basal mass balance of the ice sheet and subglacial geology particularly relevant to sediments and heat flow. To reach these objectives, it is necessary to complete not only the primary ring at the margin, but also a seaward ice-shelf ring and a landward ring, using radar, gravity, magnetics and lidar instruments altogether.


Proposed Milestone Activities with Timeline

The RINGS group will first analyze location data of BedMachine’s input radar data and soon-to-be-available BEDMAP3 open-data depositary. This will lead to the development of a set of protocols followed by future surveys. Available logistical resources and relevant constraints will be considered to examine first-order survey options. This process is interactive and will start with an international workshop, followed up with online meetings of smaller groups. This process also serves as a discussion forum to develop survey plans to balance the primary and secondary objectives of RINGS in the most efficient manner.

There are four milestones M1-M4:

M1 4th quarter (Q4), 2021 Completion of ongoing analysis to define knowledge gaps
M2 Q1, 2022 (depending on pandemic) International workshop (Tromsø, Norway)
M3 Q3, 2022 (SCAR OSC in India) Action Group meeting
M4 Q4, 2022 Submission of a peer-reviewed article (action-group deliverable)

 


Terms of Reference

The RINGS Action Group will work for two years to facilitate community efforts to fill critical knowledge gaps in the Antarctic Ice Sheet margins to monitor and predict the future of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. As a SCAR Action Group, RINGS aims to:

  • Define knowledge gaps of geophysical datasets in the ice-sheet margins.
  • Assess impacts of efforts to fill these knowledge gaps at different levels on estimates of ice discharge from Antarctica and on predicting the future of the ice sheet.
  • Develop feasible plans to fill these knowledge gaps by generating interdisciplinary, and international synergies.

Publications, Data and Links of interest to the Antarctic RINGS community.

+ Publications

RINGS Publications

+ Data

Data Management Plan

The outcome of the RINGS Action Group will be published as an open-access peer-reviewed article, and the relevant dataset will be released under the CCBY4.0 license to facilitate FAIR use of the action group outputs.

+ Links

RINGS Action Group seeks close collaboration with ongoing SCAR activities to develop interdisciplinary synergies:

  • BEDMAP3
  • AntArchitecture
  • IBCSO (for radar sounding and bed topography compilation)
  • ISMASS (for mass balance estimates)
  • ADMAP (for geology and geophysics as fundamental boundary conditions for ice dynamics)
  • CGG for geology and geophysics as fundamental boundary conditions for ice dynamics.

RINGS will also work closely with the INSTANT SRP to directly contribute to clarifying sea level change and tipping elements.

 

RINGS logo

 

Click here to download the official RINGS logo.

 

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Contact

The Chair of RINGS is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..


Steering Committee Members

Name Affiliation Country
Xiangbin Cui Polar Research Institute of China China
Fausto Ferraccioli Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (INOGS) Italy
Rene Forsberg Technical University of Denmark Denmark
Tom Jordan British Antarctic Survey UK
Kenichi Matsuoka Norwegian Polar Institute Norway
Felicity McCormack Monash University Australia
Geir Moholdt Norwegian Polar Institute Norway
Kirsty Tinto Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University USA

 

Group Members (as of May 2023)

Membership is open.  Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have an interest in the group and would like to join.

Name Affiliation Country
Songtao Ai Wuhan University China
Lu An Tongji University China
Jonathan Bamber University of Bristol UK
Lucas Beem Montana State University USA
Robin Bell Columbia University USA
Robert Bingham University of Edinburgh UK
Don Blankenship University of Texas USA
Marie Cavitte UCLouvain Belgium
Robb Clifton Australian Antarctic Division Australia
Xiangbin Cui Polar Research Institute of China China
Reinhard Drews University of Tübingen Germany
Jörg Ebbing Kiel University Germany
Olaf Eisen Alfred Wegener Institute Germany
Fausto Ferraccioli Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (INOGS) Italy
René Forsberg Technical University of Denmark Denmark
Peter Fretwell British Antarctic Survey UK
Alex Gardner NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory USA
Vikram Goel
(APECS Representative)
National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research India
Prasad Gogineni University of Alabama USA
Jamin Greenbaum University of California San Diego USA
Chad Greene NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory USA
Nick Holschuh Amherst College USA
Stewart Jamieson Durham University UK
Daniela Jansen Alfred Wegener Institute Germany
Lenneke Jong Australian Antarctic Division Australia
Tom Jordan British Antarctic Survey UK
Ala Khazendar Jet Propulsion Laboratory USA
Byeong-Hoon Kim Korea Polar Research Institute Korea
Bernd Kulessa Swansea University UK
Choon-Ki Lee Korea Polar Research Institute Korea
Won Sang Lee Korea Polar Research Institute Korea
Gunter Leguy National Center for Atmospheric Research USA
Emmanuel Le Meur Université Grenoble Alpes France
Carl Leuschen University of Kansas USA
Lu Li University of Western Australia Australia
Jonas Liebsch Kiel University Germany
Katrin Lindback Norwegian Polar Institute Norway
Yan Liu Beijing Normal University China
Mareen Lösing Kiel University Germany
Joe MacGregor NASA USA
Kenichi Matsuoka Norwegian Polar Institute Norway
Felicity McCormack Monash University Australia
Masahiro Minowa Hokkaido University Japan
Geir Moholdt Norwegian Polar Institute Norway
Mathieu Morlighem Dartmouth College USA
Francisco Navarro Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Spain
Frank Pattyn Université Libre de Bruxelles Belgium
Mayuri Pandey Banaras Hindu University India
Sergey Popov Saint Peterburg State University Russia
Yogesh Ray National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research India
Eric Rignot University of California, Irvine USA
Catherine Ritz Université Grenoble Alpes France
Jason Roberts Australian Antarctic Division Australia
Antonia Ruppel Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources Germany
Mirko Scheinert Technische Universität Dresden Germany
Dustin Schroeder Stanford University USA
Thorsten Seehaus FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg Germany
Kaian Shahateet Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Spain
Andrew Shepherd University of Leeds UK
Martin Siegert University of Exeter UK
Daniel Steinhage Alfred Wegener Institute Germany
Arjen Stroeven Stockholm University Sweden
Michael Studinger NASA USA
Bo Sun Polar Research Institute of China China
Xueyuan Tang Polar Research Institute of China China
Drew Taylor University of Alabama USA
Kirsty Tinto Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University USA
Jelte van Oostveen Norwegian Research Centre (NORCE) Norway
Douglas Wiens Washington University USA
Paul Winberry Central Washington University USA
Junjun Yang China Aero Geophysical Survey and Remote Sensing Center for Natural Resources, China Geological Survey China
Duncan Young University of Texas USA
Chen Zhao University of Tasmania Australia