Collaborative Research: NSFGEO-NERC: Understanding surface-to-bed meltwater pathways across the Greenland Ice Sheet using machine-learning and physics-based models

About This Grant

This is a project jointly funded by the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Geosciences (NSF/GEO) and the National Environment Research Council (NERC) of the United Kingdom (UK) via the NSF/GEO-NERC Lead Agency Agreement. This Agreement allows a single joint US/UK proposal to be submitted and peer-reviewed by the Agency whose investigator has the largest proportion of the budget. Upon successful joint determination of an award recommendation, each Agency funds the proportion of the budget that supports scientists at institutions in their respective countries. It is important to understand how melting ice on the surface of ice sheets, affects the movement of ice sheets. Melting ice at the surface of ice sheets form ponds of meltwater. In order to have an impact on the movement of the Greenland Ice Sheet, the meltwater must reach and lubricate the bottom of the ice sheet. For example, lakes on the surface of the ice sheet can drain through cracks and reach the bottom of the ice sheet within a few hours. To understand the formation of these cracks and the cause of draining lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet, we plan to use deep learning, an artificial intelligence algorithm, to find the locations of cracks and draining lakes in satellite imagery. Based on this new dataset, we will use mathematical models to understand the formation of new cracks and their impact on the movement of the ice sheet. Our approach contains an exciting mix of observations and mathematical models. The ability to use artificial intelligence to detect cracks and draining lakes offers opportunities to drive new understandings at the ice-sheet scale. Broader Impacts: This project will support (1) a US-UK collaboration; (2) students and junior scientists; (3) the development of open-source artificial intelligence codes for the Arctic sciences community; (4) the production of a comprehensive and freely available database of the Greenland Ice Sheet cracks and draining lakes; and (5) a community-led mentoring program called COMPACT (COmmunity-led Mentoring Program for Advancing Cryosphere Trainees), which will facilitate multi-mentor networks within the US and UK cryospheric communities for doctoral students. Meltwater that forms on the surface of the ice sheet can seep through moulins and fractures that connect the surface to the bed, lubricating the bottom of the ice sheet and influencing its dynamics. Surface-to-bed meltwater pathways are prevalent across the Greenland Ice Sheet. However, we currently lack the continent-wide maps of moulins, crevasses, and draining lakes needed to understand the formation of surface-to-bed meltwater pathways. Utilizing deep learning techniques for automated detection and mapping of ice sheet surface features can greatly enhance the glaciology community's capacity to analyze high-resolution satellite imagery, leading to new discoveries. By harnessing deep neural networks, this project aims to generate continent-wide databases of surface features that can be used to mechanistically model the ice sheet conditions that create new surface-to-bed pathways and their impact on ice-sheet dynamics. The ability to scale up feature detection to the ice sheet scale can enrich both remote sensing and modeling communities. This project will foster a US-UK collaboration involving junior principal investigators, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students. The project aims to develop open-source deep learning code, remote-sensing algorithms, and subglacial hydrology model code for the broader glaciological community. The resulting database of Greenland Ice Sheet surface-to-bed pathway locations and supraglacial lake drainage dates and locations will be made open source. The principal investigators will also collaborate to establish a community-led mentoring program within the US and UK cryospheric community to promote the retention of doctoral students and junior faculty/scientists within the polar science community. The societal benefit of this research will be a better understanding of ice sheet processes and an improved ability to predict ice sheet change. Understanding the evolving hydrology of the Greenland Ice Sheet remains an important topic given the unknown, but potentially significant, role that meltwater drainage via hydro-fracture may play in the ice-sheet’s dynamic response to an expanding ablation area. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.