OUTLINES AND DYNAMICS OF EURARCTIC ICE CAPS IN ANOMALOUS GRAVITY FIELDS

摘要

The present investigation was aimed at studying spatialrnvariability and directional dynamics of inland ice/snowrnfields in relation to lateral variations of surface gravityrnat the sub-regional scale of tens to hundreds ofrnkilometres. The main goal was to evidence, bothrntheoretically and empirically, the existence andrnsignificance of gravitational impacts and associatedrnatmospheric effects on the status and fluctuations ofrnEurasia’s northernmost insular ice caps using spacebornernradar altimetry and interferometry data from thernEarth Explorers and Sentinel missions in conjunctionrnwith GOCE satellite gradiometry, ground-basedrnmeteorological time series and glaciologicalrnobservations. EO-based geodetic and cryosphericrnmodels describing the amount of solid precipitation,rnsnow drift and accumulation, glacier elevation changernand ice flow pattern were generated, homogenized andrncombined in the terrain-following reference frame. Thernmodels were then verified and applied to the diagnosisrnof glacioclimatic differences in arctic lowlands withrnstrong gravity anomalies. It was ascertained that surfacerngravity gradients modulate the atmospheric circulationrnand stability thereby influencing the intensity of localrnprecipitation and glacier growth and flow patterns in arncascade fashion.