Abstract The Antarctic Ice Sheet holds ~91% of the global ice mass making it the biggest potential contributor to global sea-level-rise. In order to evaluate the ice sheet's present and future response to global climate change, detailed information about spatial and temporal ice mass dynamics is required. While ice sheet surface mass balance can be estimated from regional climate models, ice discharge is often determined from spaceborne measurements of ice thickness and ice motion at selected flux gates. The retrieval of ice motion is not only critical for analysing the rate of ice transport into the ocean but also for investigating the spatial and temporal pattern or the driving forcings of Antarctic ice flow dynamics. This study provides a comprehensive review of state-of-the-art spaceborne ice velocity measurements in Antarctica. Based on 201 scientific papers, published over the last three decades, our analysis revealed a dominant interest in local and regional scale investigations. Yet, the launch of the ERS-1/-2 and RADARSAT-1 SAR satellites in the 1990s dramatically increased data coverage over the Antarctic continent and enabled the first circum-antarctic velocity product to be published in the late 2000s. In recent years, the improved imaging capabilities of Landsat 8 led to a shift towards using mainly optical satellite data and enabled great advances in circum-antarctic velocity mapping. Data from the currently operating Sentinel-1/-2 missions was applied in fewer studies but will play a crucial role in future ice motion studies e.g. as part of ESA CCI projects. In addition, we found a growing interest in high temporal resolution velocity change analyses. Based on the reviewed studies, we moreover summarized the highly dynamic and locally variable flow pattern over the Antarctic continent being in accordance with varying local and regional driving mechanisms. Despite the great advances in spaceborne ice velocity mapping in Antarctica, we report some major drawbacks and discuss future challenges and requirements. To start with, our study uncovered strong variations regarding the spatial availability of investigations. While we found an aggregation of studies over selected glaciers, we report a major lack of studies in all three Antarctic sectors. Additionally, many velocity datasets were created with strongly heterogeneous output parameters and were provided at coarse temporal resolution or at point-based measurement locations only. Future studies should consequently aim at creating more uniform ice motion products at defined spatial and temporal coverage and resolution standards and at analysing particularly the least studied glaciers.

中文翻译：

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南极冰运动遥感——综述

摘要 南极冰盖拥有全球约 91% 的冰块，使其成为全球海平面上升的最大潜在因素。为了评估冰盖当前和未来对全球气候变化的响应，需要有关冰体时空动态的详细信息。虽然冰盖表面质量平衡可以通过区域气候模型来估计，但冰排放量通常是通过对选定通量门处的冰厚度和冰运动的星载测量来确定的。冰运动的反演不仅对于分析冰运入海洋的速率至关重要，而且对于研究南极冰流动力学的空间和时间模式或驱动力也至关重要。这项研究对南极洲最先进的星载冰速测量进行了全面审查。根据过去三十年发表的 201 篇科学论文，我们的分析揭示了对地方和区域规模调查的主要兴趣。然而，1990 年代 ERS-1/-2 和 RADARSAT-1 SAR 卫星的发射极大地增加了南极大陆的数据覆盖范围，并使第一个环南极速度产品得以在 2000 年代后期发布。近年来，Landsat 8 成像能力的提高导致主要使用光学卫星数据的转变，并在环南极速度测绘方面取得了巨大进步。来自当前运行的 Sentinel-1/-2 任务的数据应用于较少的研究，但将在未来的冰运动研究中发挥关键作用，例如作为 ESA CCI 项目的一部分。此外，我们发现人们对高时间分辨率速度变化分析越来越感兴趣。根据回顾的研究，我们还总结了南极大陆上的高度动态和局部可变的流动模式，与不同的地方和区域驱动机制相一致。尽管南极洲的星载冰速测绘取得了巨大进步，但我们报告了一些主要缺点并讨论了未来的挑战和要求。首先，我们的研究发现调查的空间可用性存在很大差异。虽然我们发现对选定冰川的研究汇总，但我们报告说，在所有三个南极地区都缺乏研究。此外，许多速度数据集是使用强烈异构的输出参数创建的，并且仅以粗略的时间分辨率或基于点的测量位置提供。