A Re-Assessment of the Mass Balance of the Lambert Glacier Drainage Basin, Antarctica

Abstract

AbstractRe-definition of the interior drainage basin Lambert Glacier, using the most recent sources of ice-surface elevations, has shown its area to be 902000 km2, that is, 17% less than previous estimates. Landsat imagery of the steepest sloping part of the basin shows there is bare ice over an area of 56000 km2. Other evidence also indicates exceptionally low mass inputs and the distribution of accumulation rates has been up-dated. The result is a positive mass balance for the interior basin (+2 Gt a–1) and error limits which fall below zero. This is 47% less than the most recent calculation and illustrates the difficulty in deriving mass budgets in regions where data are scarce.