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The Propagation of a Surge Front on Bering Glacier, Alaska, 2001-2011Bering Glacier, Alaska, USA, has a 20 year surge cycle, with its most recent surge reaching the terminus in 2011. To study this most recent activity a time series of ice velocity maps was produced by applying optical feature-tracking methods to Landsat-7 ETM+ imagery spanning 2001-11. The velocity maps show a yearly increase in ice surface velocity associated with the down-glacier movement of a surge front. In 2008/09 the maximum ice surface velocity was 1.5 plus or minus 0.017 kilometers per a in the mid-ablation zone, which decreased to 1.2 plus or minus 0.015 kilometers per a in 2009/10 in the lower ablation zone, and then increased to nearly 4.4 plus or minus 0.03 kilometers per a in summer 2011 when the surge front reached the glacier terminus. The surge front propagated down-glacier as a kinematic wave at an average rate of 4.4 plus or minus 2.0 kilometers per a between September 2002 and April 2009, then accelerated to 13.9 plus or minus 2.0 kilometers per a as it entered the piedmont lobe between April 2009 and September 2010. Thewave seems to have initiated near the confluence of Bering Glacier and Bagley Ice Valley as early as 2001, and the surge was triggered in 2008 further down-glacier in the mid-ablation zone after the wave passed an ice reservoir area.
Document ID
20140011242
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Turrin, James
(Utah Univ. Salt Lake City, UT, United States)
Forster, Richard R.
(Utah Univ. Salt Lake City, UT, United States)
Larsen, Chris
(Alaska Univ. Fairbanks, AK, United States)
Sauber, Jeanne
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
September 2, 2014
Publication Date
July 1, 2013
Publication Information
Publication: Annals of Glaciology
Publisher: International Glaciological Society
Volume: 54
Issue: 63
Subject Category
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN9529
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNX08AX88G
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNX08APZ76
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
Alaska
Bering Glacier
Surge Front
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