Extraction and Analysis of the Antarctic Ice Shelf Basal Channel

Basal channels are the expression of basal melting in detail. In extreme cases, they will cause the ice shelf calving and seriously threaten the ice shelf stability, which has attracted wide attention. In this study, we used reference elevation model of Antarctica (REMA) digital elevation models (DEMs) data, IceBridge data, and Amery Ice Shelf thickness data to accurately identify the distribution location of Antarctic Ice Shelf Basal Channel (AISBC). In addition, we counted the basal channels length (BCL) and basal channels concentration (BCC) and analyzed the main formation mechanism of basal channels in different sea. The accuracy of identifying basal channels was at least more than 90%. Our identification results were more accurate compared with Alley et al. (2016), and there were especially basal channels on Amery Ice Shelf and Larsen-C Ice Shelf. AISBC network is developed, and AISBC's total length is about 16965 km. In particular, the transverse basal channel has a potential impact on the ice shelf calving. BBC along the coast of Dumont D'Urville Sea was the highest, which is closely related to the active degree of the formation mechanism of the basal channels. The types of AISBC show obvious regional characteristics, which were mainly affected by the formation mechanism of basal channels. Our research results can provide scientific reference data for studying ice shelf stability in different sea regions.