A Boundary Layer Model of Ice-Ocean Interactions
Abstract
Sub-ice shelf melting is one of the two major processes of mass loss of present-day Antarctic ice shelves. Direct observations of the ice-ocean interface remain sparse and challenging, resulting in limited understanding of the processes controlling heat, mass, and salt exchange at the ice-ocean interface. At the same time, lack of the direct observations inhibits evaluation of the existing parameterizations of such processes. In this work we aim to derive a self-consistent, first-principle model of the ice-ocean boundary layer. We construct a boundary layer model describing a buoyancy-driven circulation caused by sub-ice-shelf melting, and we investigate two distinct regimes corresponding to large and small local Rossby numbers. In the first regime the flow is dominated by buoyancy forces, and the second regime is controlled by the geostrophic balance. We conclude by discussing the role of eddy viscosity closures, and particularly showing how no meaningful solution to the boundary layer problem can be constructed unless stratification effects are taken into account.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMC022.0013M
- Keywords:
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- 0728 Ice shelves;
- CRYOSPHERE;
- 0774 Dynamics;
- CRYOSPHERE;
- 0776 Glaciology;
- CRYOSPHERE