Ice viscosity is more sensitive to stress than commonly assumed

Abstract Accurate representation of the viscous flow ice is fundamental to understanding glacier dynamics and projecting sea-level rise. Ice viscosity often described by a simple but largely untested uncalibrated constitutive relation, Glen’s Flow Law, wherein rate deformation proportional stress raised power n . The value = 3 commonly prescribed in ice-flow models, though observations experiments support range values across stresses temperatures found on Earth. Here, we leverage recent remotely-sensed Antarctic shelves show that Law approximates with 4.1 ± 0.4 fast-flowing areas. are therefore more sensitive changes than most models allow. By calibrating governing equation deformation, our result pathway towards improving projections future change.