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

Abstract

Re-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.