Modeling Ground Ice Recharge in the Antarctic Dry Valleys Using In Situ and Satellite Data

Details Modeling Ground Ice Recharge in the Antarctic Dry Valleys Using In Situ and Satellite Data Modeling Ground Ice Recharge in the Antarctic Dry Valleys Using In Situ and Satellite Data

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufm.p31a0123h&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #P31A-0123

Other

0702 Permafrost (0475), 5220 Hydrothermal Systems And Weathering On Other Planets, 5416 Glaciation, 5462 Polar Regions, 5464 Remote Sensing

Scientific paper

Ground ice is of fundamental importance, on Earth and Mars, as a repository of climate information, a reservoir of key volatiles, and a habitat of possible astrobiological importance. Ice in soils of the Antarctic Dry Valleys provides the closest analog on Earth to widespread, near-surface ice Martian soils. There is, however, thus far no clear answer to the fundamental question of how ice in the Dry Valleys persists in soil at depths of only a few decimeters, over periods of 10,000 years or longer. Models based on water vapor fluxes alone predict drying of the soil to depths of many meters within only a few thousand years after emplacement. Shallow ground ice therefore evidently depends on recharge by at least one of a few possible mechanisms. In particular, high salt concentrations in soils and the isotopic composition of ice suggest that recharge by snow melt water is likely in Dry Valley soils. In addition, modeling driven by high-resolution meteorological and soil data indicates that snow cover reduces sublimation during summer. Here we leverage in situ data in Victoria Valley with satellite observation of snow cover occurrence (using the EOS MODIS instrument) to drive a model of ground ice recharge. We use the satellite data to assess the context of our instrumented site within the Victoria-Balham-Barwick valley system. We then estimate the potential for recharge by particular snow-cover events, including in particular an event on 10-13 January 2001, and consider the implications of that potential for Martian ground ice recharge by surface frosts at low elevations and high latitudes, during periods of high obliquity.

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