High-Resolution Modeling of a Springtime Ice-Dam Break
Abstract
A regional version of the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) is run at high resolution at the mouth of the Mackenzie river to examine the springtime ice dam break at the river mouth. When the ice breaks in the spring, the influx of warm, fresh water has an immediate local impact, and the annual pulse of freshwater can be tracked around the Beaufort Gyre as well. The Beaufort Gyre is modeled at 1/75th degree resolution, with boundary conditions from a global 1/25th degree model, providing a highly resolved look at the dynamics of the ice break event. As the climate warms, the thermodynamic impacts of earlier ice breakup and warmer water will affect the shelf circulation as well as the gyre-scale dynamics. Model experiments have already demonstrated that the volume of river transport affects the timing of the ice break at the mouth of the river, and these high-resolution simulations will demonstrate the extent to which volume and temperature of river water affect ice extent throughout the Beaufort Gyre.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.C51C1046D
- Keywords:
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- 0702 Permafrost;
- CRYOSPHEREDE: 0710 Periglacial processes;
- CRYOSPHEREDE: 1625 Geomorphology and weathering;
- GLOBAL CHANGEDE: 1807 Climate impacts;
- HYDROLOGY