This award is for support of a feasibility study to investigate whether the internal layering, as recorded in radar data from the Siple Coast ice streams, can be interpreted to yield information about the transition from normal ice sheet flow to streaming flow in the ice streams. A methodology for modeling the production and advection of folds in internal layers, using approximations based on steady state analytic models of Whillans and Johnsen (1983), and on simple geometic numerical modeling will be used. Recently acquired data will be analyzed with the objective of determining the scale of the processes operating in the transition zone. The practicality or feasibility of using the technique to guide further research will be examined. If successful, this approach represents a low-cost means of investigating the poorly known transition zones of the ice streams.
