Characterising Ice Motion Variability at Helheim Glacier Front from Continuous GPS Observations

Pearson, Christopher; Colinese, James; Murray, Tavi; Edwards, Stuart

doi:10.3390/glacies3010001

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Characterising Ice Motion Variability at Helheim Glacier Front from Continuous GPS Observations

Christopher Pearson, James Colinese, Tavi Murray, Stuart Edwards

Glacies, Volume: 3, Issue: 1, Start page: 1

Swansea University Authors: James Colinese, Tavi Murray

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DOI (Published version): 10.3390/glacies3010001

Abstract

Understanding short-term glacier motion is vital for assessing ice sheet dynamics in a warming climate. This study investigates the tidal and diurnal influences on the flow of Helheim Glacier, one of Greenland’s fastest-flowing marine-terminating glaciers, using data from 18 high-frequency GPS senso...

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Published in:	Glacies
ISSN:	2813-8740
Published:	MDPI AG 2026
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71275

first_indexed	2026-01-19T11:30:27Z
last_indexed	2026-01-20T05:31:19Z
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spelling	2026-01-19T11:31:47.3490966 v2 71275 2026-01-19 Characterising Ice Motion Variability at Helheim Glacier Front from Continuous GPS Observations 19cb8b63693475accb03fe1ff723d775 James Colinese James Colinese true false 8d6e71df690e725cd44191006dac31da Tavi Murray Tavi Murray true false 2026-01-19 BGPS Understanding short-term glacier motion is vital for assessing ice sheet dynamics in a warming climate. This study investigates the tidal and diurnal influences on the flow of Helheim Glacier, one of Greenland’s fastest-flowing marine-terminating glaciers, using data from 18 high-frequency GPS sensors and a regional tide gauge collected during summer 2013. A Kalman filter was applied to separate and quantify glacier velocity, tidal admittance, and diurnal melt-driven acceleration. Results reveal a high level of tidal admittance affecting the horizontal flow speed of the glacier, especially at the centre of the glacier, which is propagated upstream. This admittance corresponds to a 0.38–0.68 m/day reduction from the mean at high spring tide and a comparable increase at low tide. The glacier’s vertical motion showed strong tidal control close to the terminus, of 0.6–1.05 m during high spring tides, but this was significantly reduced more than 1 km from the terminus. Diurnal variations in horizontal speed are less spatially and temporally variable, with most nodes experiencing changes from a mean speed of ±0.1–0.3 m/day. These findings demonstrate that both tidal forcing and meltwater input to the basal system exert a significant, and potentially spatially variable, control on glacier dynamics, highlighting the need to incorporate short-period external forcing into predictive models of marine-terminating glacier behaviour. Journal Article Glacies 3 1 1 MDPI AG 2813-8740 marine-terminating glacier; tidewater glacier; glacier dynamics; GPS 7 1 2026 2026-01-07 10.3390/glacies3010001 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University Other This research was funded by UK NERC, grant number NE/I007148/1. C.P. was funded by Newcastle University. 2026-01-19T11:31:47.3490966 2026-01-19T11:25:37.3080598 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography Christopher Pearson 1 James Colinese 2 Tavi Murray 3 Stuart Edwards 4 71275__36044__7795d4209100487fb2db9936cda470bc.pdf 71275.VOR.pdf 2026-01-19T11:29:31.1451228 Output 2250962 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2026 by the authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	Characterising Ice Motion Variability at Helheim Glacier Front from Continuous GPS Observations
spellingShingle	Characterising Ice Motion Variability at Helheim Glacier Front from Continuous GPS Observations James Colinese Tavi Murray
title_short	Characterising Ice Motion Variability at Helheim Glacier Front from Continuous GPS Observations
title_full	Characterising Ice Motion Variability at Helheim Glacier Front from Continuous GPS Observations
title_fullStr	Characterising Ice Motion Variability at Helheim Glacier Front from Continuous GPS Observations
title_full_unstemmed	Characterising Ice Motion Variability at Helheim Glacier Front from Continuous GPS Observations
title_sort	Characterising Ice Motion Variability at Helheim Glacier Front from Continuous GPS Observations
author_id_str_mv	19cb8b63693475accb03fe1ff723d775 8d6e71df690e725cd44191006dac31da
author_id_fullname_str_mv	19cb8b63693475accb03fe1ff723d775_*_James Colinese 8d6e71df690e725cd44191006dac31da_*_Tavi Murray
author	James Colinese Tavi Murray
author2	Christopher Pearson James Colinese Tavi Murray Stuart Edwards
format	Journal article
container_title	Glacies
container_volume	3
container_issue	1
container_start_page	1
publishDate	2026
institution	Swansea University
issn	2813-8740
doi_str_mv	10.3390/glacies3010001
publisher	MDPI AG
college_str	Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_title	Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_parent_title	Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str	School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography
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description	Understanding short-term glacier motion is vital for assessing ice sheet dynamics in a warming climate. This study investigates the tidal and diurnal influences on the flow of Helheim Glacier, one of Greenland’s fastest-flowing marine-terminating glaciers, using data from 18 high-frequency GPS sensors and a regional tide gauge collected during summer 2013. A Kalman filter was applied to separate and quantify glacier velocity, tidal admittance, and diurnal melt-driven acceleration. Results reveal a high level of tidal admittance affecting the horizontal flow speed of the glacier, especially at the centre of the glacier, which is propagated upstream. This admittance corresponds to a 0.38–0.68 m/day reduction from the mean at high spring tide and a comparable increase at low tide. The glacier’s vertical motion showed strong tidal control close to the terminus, of 0.6–1.05 m during high spring tides, but this was significantly reduced more than 1 km from the terminus. Diurnal variations in horizontal speed are less spatially and temporally variable, with most nodes experiencing changes from a mean speed of ±0.1–0.3 m/day. These findings demonstrate that both tidal forcing and meltwater input to the basal system exert a significant, and potentially spatially variable, control on glacier dynamics, highlighting the need to incorporate short-period external forcing into predictive models of marine-terminating glacier behaviour.
published_date	2026-01-07T05:39:22Z
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score	11.097758

Characterising Ice Motion Variability at Helheim Glacier Front from Continuous GPS Observations

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