Antarctic Ice Shelf Grounding Zone Locations from ICESat

Antarctic ice shelf grounding zone locations derived from laser altimeter data collected by the ICESat satellite between October 2003 and October 2009. The dataset provides estimates of key flexure points based on repeat-track analysis. It was produced by the AMD/USAPDC organization.

Use Cases

• Model ice sheet stability by analyzing the landward limit of flexure and hydrostatic balance point.
• Validate other grounding line detection methods using the break-in-slope feature associated with flexure.
• Study tidal influence on ice shelves using repeat-track data acquired at different tidal phases.
• Map regional variability in grounding zone characteristics across Antarctic ice shelves.

Strengths

• Data spans 6 years of continuous ICESat observations from 2003 to 2009.
• Provides three distinct estimated features: landward flexure limit, hydrostatic balance point, and break-in-slope.

Limitations

• Data is temporally stale, with the last update in 2009 and no newer ICESat-2 data included.
• Specific sample size, spatial resolution, and estimation uncertainty metrics are not provided.

Provenance

Source

NASA Earthdata via the AMD/USAPDC organization.

Collection Method

Derived from ICESat laser altimeter repeat-track analysis to detect ice flexure across tidal phases.

Time Range

October 2003 through October 2009.

Freshness

null

Geography

Antarctic ice shelves.