Journal
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 42, Issue 5, Pages 1418-1426Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2014GL062806
Keywords
glacier hydrology; firn aquifer; ice sheet dynamics; ice-penetrating radar
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Funding
- IPY-GLACIODYN project - Norwegian Research Council [176076]
- US-Norway Fulbright Fellowship
- NSF [0424589]
- Directorate For Geosciences
- Office of Polar Programs (OPP) [0424589] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Ice-penetrating radar and GPS observations reveal a perennial firn aquifer (PFA) on a Svalbard ice field, similar to those recently discovered in southeastern Greenland. A bright, widespread radar reflector separates relatively dry and water-saturated firn. This surface, the phreatic firn water table, is deeper beneath local surface elevation maxima, shallower in surface lows, and steeper where the surface is steep. The reflector crosscuts snow stratigraphy; we use the apparent deflection of accumulation layers due to the higher dielectric permittivity below the water table to infer that the firn pore space becomes progressively more saturated as depth increases. Our observations indicate that PFAs respond rapidly (subannually) to surface forcing, and are capable of providing significant input to the englacial hydrology system.
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