Submitted on October 28, 2004
Accepted on June 1, 2005
Heat Flux Anomalies in Antarctica Revealed by Satellite Magnetic Data
Cathrine Fox Maule 1*,
Michael E. Purucker 2,
Nils Olsen 1,
Klaus Mosegaard 1
1 Center for Planetary Science, Juliane Maries vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen Oe, Denmark.
2 Raytheon ITSS at Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, Greenbelt, MD, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Cathrine Fox Maule , E-mail: foxmaule{at}gfy.ku.dk
The geothermal heat flux is an important factor in the dynamics of ice sheets; it affects the occurrence of subglacial lakes, the onset of ice streams, and mass losses from their base. Direct heat flux measurements in ice covered regions are difficult, thus we have developed a method using satellite magnetic data to estimate the heat flux underneath the Antarctic ice sheet. We find that the heat flux underneath the ice sheet varies from 40 to 185 mW/m2 and that areas of high heat flux coincide with known current volcanism, and some areas known to have ice streams.
