Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Glaciology
CryoSentinel: A Multimodal Foundation-Model Segmenter for Glacial Lakes in High Mountain Asia from Sentinel-1 SAR, Sentinel-2 Optical, and Copernicus DEM Imagery
Published: 2026-05-16
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Environmental Monitoring, Geomorphology, Glaciology, Hydrology
Glacial-lake outburst floods (GLOFs) are the dominant climate-driven hazard in High Mountain Asia, and reliable lake-extent segmentation is the prerequisite for every downstream early-warning workflow. We present CryoSentinel, a multimodal foundation-model semantic segmenter built on the IBM/ESA TerraMind 1.0 Large encoder (1.1 B parameters) with a UperNet decoder, fine-tuned on 5,614 [...]
TUD-L3-EWH_UNC-GRACE: A Global Level‑3 GRACE(-FO) EWH Uncertainty Product
Published: 2026-05-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Glaciology, Hydrology, Other Earth Sciences
We present TUD-L3-EWH\_UNC-GRACE, a globally gridded Level-3 GRACE(-FO) equivalent water height (EWH) data product providing an extensive characterisation of uncertainty for direct use in Earth system research. Unlike conventional approaches that either require propagation of full normal matrices or rely on empirical assumptions regarding temporal and spatial correlations, the dataset combines [...]
Sustained Decline of Annual Snow Cover Area in the Sikkim Himalaya (1987–2025): Multi-Sensor Remote Sensing on Google Earth Engine, Machine Learning, and Projections to 2100
Published: 2026-05-03
Subjects: Climate, Glaciology, Hydrology, Planetary Glaciology, Planetary Hydrology, Remote Sensing
Snow cover is a critical component of the Himalayan cryosphere, providing freshwater to millions of people across South Asia and regulating regional climate through albedo feedbacks. Sikkim, a small but ecologically significant state in the Eastern Himalaya, has experienced accelerating glacial retreat and mounting hydrological stress in recent decades. This study presents a comprehensive, [...]
Long-term future Greenland ice loss determined by peak global warming
Published: 2026-04-28
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Climate, Glaciology
The Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) is known to be very sensitive to climate change, and persistent global warming only slightly higher than today could be enough to completely melt it. However, the implications of a temporary crossing of this temperature threshold for future GrIS mass loss remain unknown. Here we present simulations of the next 10,000 years under different future anthropogenic [...]
Estimating Ice Shelf Thickness in Grounding Zones of the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf with Tidal Flexure from ICESat-2
Published: 2026-04-28
Subjects: Glaciology
In the grounding zones of Antarctic ice sheets, grounded ice sheets become floating ice shelves at the triple junction of the ice, ocean, and bedrock. Ice downstream of the grounding line rises and falls with ocean tides while ice upstream of it does not, creating kilometers wide flexure zones. Ice thickness in the flexure zone cannot be well estimated by assuming it is in hydrostatic [...]
snowman: an open-source R package for automated 30-m snow and ice cover mapping using the Landsat archive
Published: 2026-03-06
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Glaciology, Hydrology, Water Resource Management
Seasonal snow and ice cover are critical components of the cryosphere yet mapping their dynamics at ecologically relevant spatiotemporal scales remains challenging. Here I present snowman, an open-source R package and algorithm for automated mapping of snow and ice cover dynamics at 30-m resolution using Landsat satellite imagery (1982–present). The algorithm combines globally trained [...]
Connectivity between primary and secondary subglacial drainage systems beneath a land-terminating outlet glacier of the Greenland Ice Sheet
Published: 2026-03-04
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Glaciology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The evolution and connectivity of subglacial drainage systems controls basal sliding and therefore modulates ice flow, yet direct observations of these systems remain limited. Here, we investigate hydraulic connectivity and its influence on ice motion at Isunnguata Sermia - a large land-terminating outlet glacier of the Greenland Ice Sheet. We use ‘Cryoegg’ wireless sensors to obtain moulin [...]
PaleoEurope-DEM v1.0: A distributed pipeline for continental-scale paleo-landscape reconstruction from FABDEM-GEBCO fusion and glacial isostatic adjustment
Published: 2026-02-28
Subjects: Geology, Glaciology, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing
Reconstructing paleo-landscapes at high spatial resolution is essential for understanding Quaternary environmental change, yet no open-source, reproducible pipeline currently exists for fusing modern elevation data with glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) models at continental scale. We present PaleoEurope-DEM v1.0, a distributed processing pipeline that produces continuous topo-bathymetric [...]
Rethinking grounding-zone basal drag for improved projections of Antarctic ice loss
Published: 2026-02-24
Subjects: Geology, Geomorphology, Glaciology
Ice-stream grounding zones are critical parts of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and we must be able to model how they retreat with confidence. This is because for most of Antarctica, the grounding-zone location determines the flux of ice to the ocean. As such, future grounding-zone locations (as the ice-sheet edge retreats inland) dictate the pattern and rate of ice loss and the associated sea-level [...]
Basal Melt Dominance in Grounding-Line Dynamics: SAR Interferometry Reveals How Ocean Thermal Forcing Outpaces Tidal and Seasonal Controls in Antarctic Ice Shelves
Published: 2026-02-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Glaciology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The grounding line hinge position for the Fimbul Ice Shelf (Antarctic Peninsula) was determined using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Interferometric data from June 2023 through October 2024. The data were used to determine the hinge position over eight different time intervals (i.e., SAR Pairs) at an average spatial resolution of 20 meters. The Fimbul Ice Shelf area of interest (AOI) was defined [...]
Automating glacier facies classification: pan-European dataset and deep learning baseline
Published: 2026-01-27
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Glaciology
Glacier facies play a critical role in understanding the mass balance of glaciers, offering insights into accumulation and melting processes. Large-scale mapping of glacier facies from satellite data is therefore essential for monitoring glacier response to climate change and informing climate policies. In this study, we present the largest glacier facies dataset ever compiled for Europe, [...]
Near-total loss of buttressing stresses observed on Pine Island Ice Shelf, West Antarctica
Published: 2026-01-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Glaciology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Ice shelves, the floating extensions of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, provide critical buttressing stresses that resist the seaward flow of ice and help set the position of the grounding line, where the ice goes afloat. As buttressing stresses are diminished by thinning or fracturing and collapse of the ice shelf, glaciers tend to accelerate. Here, we focus on the response of Pine Island Ice Shelf [...]
A fan-shaped subglacial basin province in East Antarctica formed by rotational extension
Published: 2025-12-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Glaciology, Tectonics and Structure
Recent sub-ice topography investigations have imaged with greatly improved detail a set of low-elevation V- shaped basins hidden beneath a very large sector of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Here we jointly interpret sub-ice topography and geophysical data and show that these basins form a semi-continental sized fan shaped physiographic unit which radiates from a focal point near the South Pole. [...]
Governing the cryosphere beyond political timeframes
Published: 2025-11-26
Subjects: Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Glaciology, Nature and Society Relations, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Sustainability
Cryospheric systems are nearing irreversible thresholds, yet political processes remain misaligned with the long timescales of ice loss. Using COP30 as context, we argue that cryosphere science must inform governance capable of linking near-term decisions with long-term stability in a rapidly changing world.
Glacier processes from seismic recordings on Sørsdal Glacier, East Antarctica
Published: 2025-10-15
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Glaciology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
A catalogue of seismic events is produced and analysed for Sørsdal Glacier, East Antarctica. Recordings were made using an irregular array of three broadband and eight short-period seismometers, with approximately 3 km aperture, deployed slightly upstream of the expected grounding line during the 2017-18 austral summer. The broadband sensors were used to construct the event catalogue, and the [...]