Tidal Modulation of Buoyant Flow and Basal Melt Beneath Petermann Gletscher Ice Shelf, Greenland

A set of collocated, in situ oceanographic and glaciological measurements from Petermann Gletscher Ice Shelf, Greenland, provides insights into the dynamics of under-ice flow driving basal melting. At a site 16 km seaward of the grounding line within a longitudinal basal channel, two conductivity-temperature (CT) sensors beneath the ice base and a phase-sensitive radar on the ice surface were used to monitor the coupled ice shelf-ocean system. A 6 month time series spanning 23 August 2015 to 12 February 2016 exhibited two distinct periods of ice-ocean interactions. Between August and December, radar-derived basal melt rates featured fortnightly peaks of ∼15 m yr^-1 which preceded the arrival of cold and fresh pulses in the ocean that had high concentrations of subglacial runoff and glacial meltwater. Estimated current speeds reached 0.20 - 0.40 m s^-1 during these pulses, consistent with a strengthened meltwater plume from freshwater enrichment. Such signals did not occur between December and February, when ice-ocean interactions instead varied at principal diurnal and semidiurnal tidal frequencies, and lower melt rates and current speeds prevailed. A combination of estimated current speeds and meltwater concentrations from the two CT sensors yields estimates of subglacial runoff and glacial meltwater volume fluxes that vary between 10 and 80 m³ s^-1 during the ocean pulses. Area-average upstream ice shelf melt rates from these fluxes are up to 170 m yr^-1, revealing that these strengthened plumes had already driven their most intense melting before arriving at the study site.