The Ghost Plumes - 6

Fig. 1

Today's post includes an update of the grounding line sizes (distances) along the coastline of Antarctica.

The update is followed by two appendices at the end of the discussion.

In a previous post I used the maximum and minimum estimates of R. Bindschadler et al. 2011.

Since then I have acquired one of the actual databases of several million measurements he used with which I have "zeroed in on" and made a much more accurate estimate of the perimeter sizes of the "grounding lines" of tidewater glaciers along the enormous coastline of Antarctica.

Fig. 2 Coastline Shape

The documentation (nsidc0489_UG.pdf) indicated that there were five types of termini in the expanse of grounding line lengths:

1: Ice shelf (2,205,458 locations)
2: Outlet glacier (449,985 locations)
3: Fast ice
4: Open ocean (325,846 locations)
5: Rock

(ibid). By "locations" I mean latitude, longitude locations where the grounding lines were determined by close analysis of satellite photos and measurements by R. Bindschadler et al. 2011.

I removed type #5 ("Rock") and #3 ("Fast ice") from my SQL server database because those were not clear as to whether or not they are tidewater glacier terminus types that merit consideration for detecting ghost plumes.

If you compare the results of the update you will see that my original ball-park maximum and minimum grounding line estimates of plume widths (p^W) were for the most part within those boundaries.

That original estimation was based only on the R. Bindschadler et al. 2011 paper's kilometer determinations.

My estimates were originally based on WOD Zone widths, which are idealized widths of "square-like" shapes.

Today's estimates are based on the in situ measured reality of the zigs and zags that have generally increased the length estimates of the grounding lines based on actual measurements.

Appendix Two gives an unmistakable picture of the difficulty that so many thousands and thousands of zigs and zags in the measured environment present.

As an example, "Zone: 3603, Count: 54048" means that in WOD Zone 3603 there were 54,048 measurements, each "taken" at at different latitude and longitude location along the grounding line.

The exercise required to determine the full length accurately is to sum the distances between each one of those locations and the one nearest to it, then move to the next one.

I wrote a software module to traverse the almost 3 million latitude zigs and longitude zags so as to determine distance from zig to zag, then total them up by Zone and Area (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Appendix One, Appendix Two).

In the next post I hope to bring it all home by clarifying and finalizing the plume height (p^H) uncertainties.

Which means that a reasonable certainty as to the plume flow volume is emerging.

The previous post in this series is here.

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These values are basedon an ASAID data file: ASAID_continent_GL.txt

West Indian Ocean (Area A)

Zone 3603 GL size: 948.062 km (948062 m)
Zone 3604 GL size: 1070.35 km (1.07035e+06 m)
Zone 3605 GL size: 1235.95 km (1.23595e+06 m)
Zone 3606 GL size: 1090.32 km (1.09032e+06 m)
Zone 3700 GL size: 714.801 km (714801 m)
Zone 3701 GL size: 858.463 km (858463 m)
Zone 3702 GL size: 809.244 km (809244 m)
Area GL size: 6727.19 km (6.72719e+06 m)

(Appendix A max/min estimate)
p^W theoretical min = 5.35131e+06 m
p^W theoretical max = 7.71388e+06 m

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East Indian Ocean (Area B)

Zone 3607 GL size: 930.701 km (930701 m)
Zone 3608 GL size: 650.146 km (650146 m)
Zone 3609 GL size: 771.646 km (771646 m)
Zone 3610 GL size: 761.075 km (761075 m)
Zone 3611 GL size: 1325.74 km (1.32574e+06 m)
Zone 3612 GL size: 846.227 km (846227 m)
Zone 3613 GL size: 707.331 km (707331 m)
Zone 3614 GL size: 969.389 km (969389 m)
Zone 3615 GL size: 922.96 km (922960 m)
Area GL size: 7885.22 km (7.88522e+06 m)

(Appendix B max/min estimate)
p^W theoretical min = 6.88025e+06 m
p^W theoretical max = 9.91785e+06 m

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Ross Sea (Area C)

Zone 3616 GL size: 61.0403 km (61040.3 m)
Zone 3716 GL size: 4323.96 km (4.32396e+06 m)
Zone 3717 GL size: 237.006 km (237006 m)
Zone 3816 GL size: 1050.52 km (1.05052e+06 m)
Zone 3817 GL size: 257.695 km (257695 m)
Zone 5715 GL size: 1119.34 km (1.11934e+06 m)
Zone 5815 GL size: 1211.78 km (1.21178e+06 m)
Zone 5816 GL size: 896.48 km (896480 m)
Zone 5817 GL size: 493.901 km (493901 m)
Area GL size: 9651.72 km (9.65172e+06 m)

(Appendix C max/min estimate)
p^W theoretical min = 3.82236e+06 m
p^W theoretical max = 5.50992e+06 m

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Amundsen Sea (Area D)

Zone 5711 GL size: 1163.71 km (1.16371e+06 m)
Zone 5712 GL size: 411.15 km (411150 m)
Zone 5713 GL size: 483.06 km (483060 m)
Zone 5714 GL size: 1761.14 km (1.76114e+06 m)
Area GL size: 3819.06 km (3.81906e+06 m)

(Appendix D max/min estimate)
p^W theoretical min = 3.05789e+06 m
p^W theoretical max = 4.40793e+06 m

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Bellingshausen Sea (Area E)

Zone 5606 GL size: 5020.76 km (5.02076e+06 m)
Zone 5706 GL size: 3223.57 km (3.22357e+06 m)
Zone 5707 GL size: 2369.98 km (2.36998e+06 m)
Zone 5708 GL size: 1966.7 km (1.9667e+06 m)
Zone 5709 GL size: 889.963 km (889963 m)
Zone 5710 GL size: 1349.62 km (1.34962e+06 m)
Area GL size: 14820.6 km (1.48206e+07 m)

(Appendix E max/min estimate)
p^W theoretical min = 3.82236e+06 m
p^W theoretical max = 5.50992e+06 m

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Weddell Sea (Area F)

Zone 5605 GL size: 789.264 km (789264 m)
Zone 5700 GL size: 1012.35 km (1.01235e+06 m)
Zone 5701 GL size: 1325.77 km (1.32577e+06 m)
Zone 5702 GL size: 833.24 km (833240 m)
Zone 5703 GL size: 573.334 km (573334 m)
Zone 5705 GL size: 17.6405 km (17640.5 m)
Area GL size: 4551.59 km (4.55159e+06 m)

(Appendix F max/min estimate)
p^W theoretical min = 4.58683e+06 m
p^W theoretical max = 6.6119e+06 m

Antarctica GL size: 47455.4 km (4.74554e+07 m)

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These counts are based on an ASAID data file: ASAID_continent_GL.txt

West Indian Ocean (Area A)

Zone: 3603, Count: 54048
Zone: 3604, Count: 45435
Zone: 3605, Count: 52868
Zone: 3606, Count: 58241
Zone: 3700, Count: 45960
Zone: 3701, Count: 56265
Zone: 3702, Count: 54168
Area Total: 366985

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East Indian Ocean (Area B)

Zone: 3607, Count: 41330
Zone: 3608, Count: 42374
Zone: 3609, Count: 43632
Zone: 3610, Count: 37569
Zone: 3611, Count: 81735
Zone: 3612, Count: 44976
Zone: 3613, Count: 35542
Zone: 3614, Count: 59721
Zone: 3615, Count: 51563
Area Total: 438442

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Ross Sea (Area C)

Zone: 3616, Count: 3114
Zone: 3716, Count: 219632
Zone: 3717, Count: 7717
Zone: 3816, Count: 64885
Zone: 3817, Count: 16742
Zone: 5715, Count: 70595
Zone: 5815, Count: 63526
Zone: 5816, Count: 52926
Zone: 5817, Count: 23347
Area Total: 522484

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Amundsen Sea (Area D)

Zone: 5711, Count: 77171
Zone: 5712, Count: 27293
Zone: 5713, Count: 24512
Zone: 5714, Count: 98824
Area Total: 227800

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Bellingshausen Sea (Area E)

Zone: 5606, Count: 328319
Zone: 5706, Count: 190394
Zone: 5707, Count: 124535
Zone: 5708, Count: 85887
Zone: 5709, Count: 48884
Zone: 5710, Count: 80288
Area Total: 858307

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Weddell Sea (Area F)

Zone: 5605, Count: 45707
Zone: 5700, Count: 66272
Zone: 5701, Count: 85195
Zone: 5702, Count: 24246
Zone: 5703, Count: 33000
Zone: 5705, Count: 1122
Area Total: 255542