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The stability of ice shelves and drainage of ice sheets they buttress is largely determined by melting at their atmospheric and oceanic interfaces. Subglacial bathymetry can impact ice shelf stability because it influences the onset and the pattern of warm ocean water incursions into the cavities between them and the seafloor. Bathymetry is further important at pinning points, which significantly retard the flow of ice shelves. This effect can be lost instantaneously if basal and surface melting cause an ice sheet to thin and lift off its pinning points. With all this in mind, we have developed a model of bathymetry beneath the western Roi Baudouin and central and eastern Borchgrevink ice shelves in Dronning Maud Land based on inversion from gravity data and tied to available depth references offshore and subglacial topography inland of the grounding line. The model shows deep glacial troughs beneath the ice shelves and bathymetric sills close to the continental shelf. The central Borchgrevink Ice Shelf overhangs the continental slope by around 50 km, exposing its northern parts to the open ocean and higher ocean temperatures. Continuous troughs traverse the central Borchgrevink and western Roi Baudouin ice shelves at depths greater than the offshore thermocline and thus present a risk of Warm Deep Water intrusions into their cavities under the current and future oceanographic regimes. Differing bathymetric characteristics might explain the ice shelves' contrasting dominant mass loss processes. Plain Language Summary: The rate at which Antarctica's ice sheets flow off the continent is largely stabilized by floating ice shelves that form where they meet the surrounding ocean. Assessing the stability of this interconnected system strongly depends on correctly quantifying ice gain processes, such as snowfall, and ice mass loss processes, such as melting at the bases of the ice shelves. This basal melting strongly depends on the flow of warm ocean water into the cavity between the ice shelf and the seafloor below, which is in turn influenced by the shape of the seabed. Using sparse direct measurements together with small variations in the pull of gravity measured from airplanes, we have generated a model of the formerly unknown topography beneath the Borchgrevink and Roi Baudouin ice shelves in East Antarctica. The modeled seabed shows deep troughs beneath the ice shelves and topographic sills along the continental shelf. Gateways within these sills potentially allow for the intrusion of warm water into the cavities, representing a threat to future ice shelf stability. Key Points: We have generated bathymetric models based on gravity inversion beneath the Roi Baudouin and Borchgrevink ice shelvesResults are similar to ice shelves throughout the entire Dronning Maud Land, which are all crossed by deep troughs and bathymetric sillsDeep gateways leading from the open ocean into ice shelf cavities possibly allow for the intrusion of Warm Deep Water into these cavities [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ice shelves around Antarctica can provide back stress for outlet glaciers and control ice sheet mass loss. They often contain narrow bands of thin ice termed ice shelf channels. Ice shelf channel morphology can be interpreted through surface depressions and exhibits junctions and deflections from flowlines. Using ice flow modeling and radar, we investigate ice shelf channels in the Roi Baudouin Ice Shelf. These are aligned obliquely to the prevailing easterly winds. In the shallow radar stratigraphy, syncline and anticline stacks occur beneath the upwind and downwind side, respectively. The structures are horizontally and vertically coherent, except near an ice shelf channel junction where patterns change structurally with depth. Deeper layers truncate near basal incisions. Using ice flow modeling, we show that the stratigraphy is ∼9 times more sensitive to atmospheric variability than to oceanic variability. This is due to the continual adjustment toward flotation. We propose that syncline‐anticline pairs in the shallow stratigraphy are caused by preferential snow deposition on the windward side and wind erosion at the downwind side. This drives downwind deflection of ice shelf channels of several meters per year. The depth variable structures indicate formation of an ice shelf channel junction by basal melting. We conclude that many ice shelf channels are seeded at the grounding line. Their morphology farther seaward is shaped on different length scales by ice dynamics, the ocean, and the atmosphere. These processes act on finer (subkilometer) scales than are captured by most ice, atmosphere, and ocean models, yet the dynamics of ice shelf channels may have broader implications for ice shelf stability. Plain Language Summary: Ice flows from Antarctica's interior toward the coast. At the contact point between ice and ocean, the ice becomes afloat and forms fast‐flowing ice shelves. Snowfall continuously accumulates at the ice shelf surface, and at the ice shelf bottom the relatively warm ocean water can melt ice from below. Ice shelves sometimes exhibit a network of surface depressions resembling a river network. At the base, the depressions are accompanied by large incisions termed ice shelf channels. Using radar as a tool for echolocation, we investigate how the shape of this network is formed. We find that snow preferentially collects in the upwind side of the surface depressions. This makes ice shelf channels move to the downwind side. We also find that ice shelf channels can form junctions through localized ocean melting. This is important because it helps us to better understand how the Antarctic ice sheet interacts with the surrounding ocean. Key Points: The radar stratigraphy in ice shelves is 9 times more sensitive to variability in snow deposition than to variability in basal meltingSome ice shelf channels at Roi Baudouin Ice Shelf deflect from flowlines; the radar stratigraphy reflects related processesVariable snow deposition causes slow deflection, and basal melting can form ice shelf channel junctions far from the grounding line [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ice shelves control the dynamic mass loss of ice sheets through buttressing and their integrity depends on the spatial variability of their basal mass balance (BMB), i.e. the difference between refreezing and melting. Here, we present an improved technique - based on satellite observations - to capture the small-scale variability in the BMB of ice shelves. As a case study, we apply the methodology to the Roi Baudouin Ice Shelf, Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, and derive its yearly averaged BMB at 10m horizontal gridding. We use mass conservation in a Lagrangian framework based on high-resolution surface velocities, atmosphericmodel surface mass balance and hydrostatic ice-thickness fields (derived from TanDEM-X surface elevation). Spatial derivatives are implemented using the total-variation differentiation, which preserves abrupt changes in flow velocities and their spatial gradients. Such changes may reflect a dynamic response to localized basal melting and should be included in the mass budget. Our BMB field exhibits much spatial detail and ranges from -14.7 to 8.6ma-1 ice equivalent. Highest melt rates are found close to the grounding line where the pressure melting point is high, and the ice shelf slope is steep. The BMB field agrees well with on-site measurements from phase-sensitive radar, although independent radar profiling indicates unresolved spatial variations in firn density. We show that an elliptical surface depression (10m deep and with an extent of 0.7 kmҿ1.3 km) lowers by 0.5 to 1.4ma-1, which we tentatively attribute to a transient adaptation to hydrostatic equilibrium. We find evidence for elevated melting beneath ice shelf channels (with melting being concentrated on the channel's flanks). However, farther downstream from the grounding line, the majority of ice shelf channels advect passively (i.e. no melting nor refreezing) toward the ice shelf front. Although the absolute, satellite-based BMB values remain uncertain, we have high confidence in the spatial variability on sub-kilometre scales. This study highlights expected challenges for a full coupling between ice and ocean models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]