Leveraging Multidecadal Remote Sensing Data to Evaluate Interactions Between Century-Scale Ice-Dynamics and the Local Evolution of Crary Ice Rise

Ross Ice Shelf is responsible for providing resistance to the seaward flow of large outlet glaciers and ice streams that drain an integrated ice mass equivalent to 11.6m of global sea level rise from the East and West Antarctic ice sheets. The regions containing persistent, dome-shaped ice rises at which Ross Ice Shelf interacts with land beneath are critical for providing frictional resistance to outflowing land ice, stabilizing the ice shelf. Ice rises and their contribution to ice shelf buttressing are sensitive to ongoing glaciological and oceanographic processes that cause the local region to evolve. Here we use satellite altimetry from the ICESat, CryoSat-2, and ICESat-2 missions paired with modern and historic airborne radar surveys from the 1971-1979 SPRI/NSF/TUD, 2015-2017 ROSETTA-Ice, 2013/2017 NASA Operation IceBridge, and 2011/2013 NSF CReSIS campaigns to produce the first multidecadal characterization of the structural changes occurring in the Crary Ice Rise region. We found a persistent trend of thickening and thinning ice upstream of Crary Ice Rise and at the grounding zone, possibly indicating the effects of Siple Coast ice stream rerouting on Crary Ice Rise's contribution to buttressing. We assessed multidecadal airborne radar from this region, including the recently digitized and calibrated 1971-1979 SPRI/NSF/TUD campaigns, for ice thickness changes and bed characterization. Evaluated together, the derived ice thickness anomalies and bed characteristics provide insight into ice rise structural response to highly dynamic ice systems and its effects on contributed buttressing for the greater Ross Ice Shelf. Our results demonstrate the potential for combining decades of remote sensing data to evaluate the interactions between century-scale ice-dynamic cycles and the local evolution of pinning points pertinent to the stress regime on Ross Ice Shelf, such as the Crary Ice Rise, and may be extended to other key regions where ice rises provide significant buttressing to grounded ice across Antarctica.