Balance velocities and measured properties of the Antarctic ice sheet from a new compilation of gridded data for modelling

This paper presents a new compilation of gridded datasets for three-dimensional modelling of the Antarctic ice sheet. These are for surface elevation, ice thickness, bedrock elevation and accumulation rate as interpolated on a 281 x281 mesh with 20 km spacing, and encompass all the ice sheet and surrounding continental shelf Data sources include the Bamber digital-elevation model from ERS-1 radar-altimeter data, a redigitization of available ice-thickness data, the Giovinetto accumulation data, recent ice-thickness data from British and German expeditions as well as accumulation data from German and Norwegian expeditions. In particular, new data were incorporated for the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf and for Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, arising from the EPICA pre-site survey. Special attention was devoted to matching the various data sources carefully, both among themselves and across the grounding line and below the ice shelves, to enable ice-sheet expansion and retreat in dynamic situations. As an application, the balance flow is calculated over the entire ice sheet using a two-dimensional finite-difference scheme and compared with a previous assessment. This brought to light the existence of ice-streaming features extending well inland. A detailed zoom over Dronning Maud Land exhibits the general flow characteristics of interest for locating a future deep-drilling site. As a by-product, an updated value of 26.4 x 10(6) km(3) was obtained for the total volume of the ice sheet and ice shelves! or equivalent to 61.1 m of global sea-level rise after removal of the ice sheet and subsequent oceanic invasion and isostatic rebound. The total accumulation over the grounded ice sheet, including the Antarctic Peninsula, is 1924 Gt a(-1) or between 5 and 20% higher than earlier estimates. Including all the ice shelves, the value is 2344 Gt a(-1).