How can P-band SAR improve the detection and monitoring of meltwater storage within Antarctic firn and ice, and what are the implications of this stored meltwater for ice-shelf stability and ice dynamics?

Benjamin is a remote sensing glaciologist based at the University of Leeds whose work focuses on using satellite imagery to understand the dynamics of Earth’s ice sheets and glaciers. Ben came to glaciology from a background in physics, completing his masters’ degree at the University of Oxford in 2017. He began his PhD at the University of Leeds in 2020 focusing on the ice dynamics of the Antarctic Peninsula. Since completing his PhD in 2024, Ben’s work has expanded to cover the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets. Highlights of his research include measuring the seasonal speed-up of glaciers in the Antarctic Peninsula, using AI to detect glacial sediment plumes and developing new methods for measuring ice shelf grounding line position. In 2026 he begins an ESA Living Planet Fellowship using the new BIOMASS P-band SAR mission to study englacial meltwater storage in the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Research abstract and objectives

The BIO4Cryo project aims to revolutionize our understanding of englacial meltwater storage in Antarctica by leveraging the unprecedented capabilities of ESA’s newly launched BIOMASS satellite mission. Englacial water stored within buried lakes and firn aquifers has a critical role in Antarctic ice dynamics, impacting ice shelf stability through hydrofracture, glacier flow where it reaches the bed, and the thermodynamics of the firn layer, making it influential on the continent’s contribution to global sea-level rise. Despite its importance, systematic widespread observation of englacial water in Antarctica remains a major gap in current Earth observation capabilities. BIO4Cryo addresses this gap by developing and applying novel synthetic aperture radar (SAR) techniques using BIOMASS’s long-wavelength P-band radar, which penetrates deeper into the snowpack than existing C- and X-band missions.

The project is structured around three core scientific objectives. First, it will develop and validate algorithms for detecting englacial water using BIOMASS data, supplemented by Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions. Techniques including SAR polarimetry, polarimetric interferometry (Pol-InSAR) and SAR tomography (TomoSAR) and multi-frequency SAR will be tested and refined to identify buried lakes and firn aquifers. Second, these algorithms will be applied to the entire Antarctic Ice Sheet to produce a continent-wide inventory of englacial water features. Third, the resulting dataset will be analysed in conjunction with regional climate models and Earth observation data to assess the impact of englacial water on ice shelf stability and seasonal ice flow variability. The project will deliver a suite of scientific outputs, including open-source algorithms for englacial water detection, a firn aquifer and buried lake inventory dataset for the Antarctic Ice Sheet, technical notes, and peer-reviewed publications.

By enabling systematic detection of englacial water, BIO4Cryo will enhance our understanding of Antarctica’s hydrological systems, improving assessments of ice shelf stability and furthering our understanding of the impact of meltwater on ice dynamics. It will also provide critical insights into the thermodynamic and hydrological processes governing firn evolution and meltwater transport.

Scientific questions addressed by the project:

Can P-band synthetic aperture radar be used to systematically detect and monitor englacial meltwater in Antarctica?

In Antarctica, how much surface meltwater is retained as liquid water in the firn layer?

What impact does englacial meltwater storage have on ice-shelf stability and ice dynamics in Antarctica?