Ice Thickness and Surface Elevation, Southeastern Ross Embayment, West Antarctica

Abstract: Ice surface elevation and ice thickness data are available for a
portion of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The investigators utilized a
laser altimeter and ice-penetrating radar mounted to a Twin Otter
aircraft to survey the ice sheet. Ice surface elevations and ice
thickness data, derived from laser altimetry and radar sounding
results, are available in ASCII format via ftp.

These data are a result of the Corridor Aerogeophysics of the
Southeastern Ross Transect Zone (CASERTZ) experiments of the 1990s.
The CASERTZ geophysical surveys were aimed at understanding geological
controls on ice streams of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, ultimately to
help assess the potential for ice sheet collapse. Blankenship et
al. (2001) used ice surface elevations and ice thicknesses (reported
here) to calculate driving stresses across the ice sheet and thus to identify regions of rapid basal movement by ice streams.