What the study found
The study reports major improvements in the description of the bed topography and bathymetry, meaning the shape of the land under the ice and the ocean floor, for both the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets.
Why the authors say this matters
The authors say these improvements address known limitations in BedMachine, a widely used high-resolution bed map for ice-sheet modelling. The findings indicate that better bed and bathymetry descriptions are relevant for the ice-sheet modelling community.
What the researchers tested
The researchers combined four recent updates: ICESat-2 surface elevation time series for Greenland, Ice-Flow Perturbation Analysis for Antarctic interior bed estimates, the machine learning-based IceBoost approach for periphery ice caps and the Antarctic Peninsula, and a new gravity inversion product from the Antarctic Gravity Anomaly Grid for continental shelf bathymetry.
What worked and what didn't
The abstract says the Greenland ICESat-2 approach captured finer bed details. For Antarctica, Ice-Flow Perturbation Analysis estimated bed topography from the surface expression of mesoscale bedforms, IceBoost inferred fine details from surface features, and the new gravity inversion product provided significant refinements to bathymetry around the ice sheet.
What to keep in mind
The abstract notes that previous BedMachine versions still suffered from uncertainty in ocean bathymetry and mapping artefacts in the ice-sheet interior. It does not provide quantitative comparisons or detailed limitations for the new updates.
Key points
- The article reports major improvements in bed topography and bathymetry for both the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets.
- The work addresses two stated BedMachine limitations: ocean bathymetry uncertainty and mapping artefacts in the ice-sheet interior.
- Greenland updates used ICESat-2 surface elevation time series to build an ensemble of bed elevations with finer detail.
- Antarctic interior bed estimates used Ice-Flow Perturbation Analysis, based on the surface expression of mesoscale bedforms.
- Bathymetry around the Antarctic continental shelf was refined using a new gravity inversion product from the Antarctic Gravity Anomaly Grid.
Disclosure
- Research title:
- New BedMachine updates improve Antarctic and Greenland bed maps
- Authors:
- Mathieu Morlighem, Raphaëlle Charrassin, Niccolo Maffezzoli, Romain Millan, Helen Ockenden, Nicole-Jeanne Schlegel, Helene Seroussi, Mike Wood
- Institutions:
- Dartmouth College, Dartmouth Hospital, University of California, Irvine, Irvine University, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, National Research Council, Université Grenoble Alpes, NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
- Publication date:
- 2026-04-23
- OpenAlex record:
- View
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