Comment on egusphere-2025-4771
Abstract
Abstract. Changes at the boundary where marine terminating glaciers transition from grounded to floating, known as the grounding line, are critical for glacier stability and ice discharge prediction. We explore changes in the ice flexure zone (FZ), which spans from the inland limit of tidal flexure, known as the hinge line, across the actual grounding line, to where the ice tongue becomes freely floating. FZ movements on Milne Glacier, Nunavut, Canada from 2023 to 2024 were measured at a spatial resolution of 10 m using 4-day RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) repeat acquisitions from four different orbits. The Double Difference Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DDInSAR) technique was employed to delineate 116 FZ positions, which were then examined with respect to tides, glacier velocity, surface and bed topography. Tides modulated by atmospheric pressure were the major driver of changes in the FZ with the correlation coefficient between DDInSAR and sea surface height displacements ranging from 0.81 to 0.94 for different RCM orbits. The lowest error (
Fields of Study & Subjects
Cryospheric studies and observations
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Applications and Techniques
Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics
Publication details
- Publication date
- 13 January 2026