A model to constrain 21st Century sea level rise from tidewater glaciers
Abstract
Tidewater glaciers are large contributors to global mean sea level rise, both in their own right (e.g. Columbia Glacier, Alaska) and as outlets of the continental ice sheets. Tidewater glaciers are channeled through narrow fjords ( 100-101 km) that are difficult to resolve in continental-scale ice sheet models, hindering sea level rise projections. Moreover, tidewater glaciers respond to difficult-to-resolve local variables, such as precipitation rate and ocean forcing. Here we present a "flowline" model for networks of tidewater glaciers based on Nye's perfect plastic approximation, and we describe how it can be applied to generate constraints on the glaciological contribution to 21st Century sea level rise. The model can be forced with modeled or observed surface mass balance, or coupled with an ice sheet model upstream. Several test cases from Alaska and Greenland demonstrate our model's performance, and we illustrate how adjustments to the sole model parameter can constrain the decade- to century-scale ice flux to the ocean.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFM.C51G..08U
- Keywords:
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- 0720 Glaciers;
- CRYOSPHEREDE: 0762 Mass balance 0764 Energy balance;
- CRYOSPHEREDE: 0776 Glaciology;
- CRYOSPHEREDE: 0798 Modeling;
- CRYOSPHERE