Glaciology

The hydrological system of the Greenland ice sheet is composed by snow, surface, englacial, subglacial, and proglacial systems. Due to the heating from the sun, the snow on the surface is melt into water which moves along surface streams. Partial of the water reaches surface lakes and is conveyed to the subglacial conduit through the englacial channels. Water discharged into subglacial channels can either be discharged into the ocean for marine terminating glaciers or into the proglacial rivers before reaching the ocean for land terminating glaciers. Due to limited access to the subglacial conduit, a better understanding of the hydrodynamics, thermodynamics within subglacial conduits and associated ice dynamics is an urgent task for better evaluating the role of GrIS in climate models.