SCIENCE@home

Melting and freezing beneath ice shelves: implications from a three-dimensional ocean-circulation model

J. Determann,R. Gerdes

Published 1995 in Annals of Glaciology

ABSTRACT

The thermohaline circulation below a regularly shaped ice shelf comparable in dimensions to the Ronne Ice Shelf, Antarctica, is investigated by means of a three-dimensional primitive-equation model. To handle the strongly inclined ocean surface as well as the bottom topography, we use scaled coordinates in the vertical direction. Preliminary results of two model versions containing open and closed open-ocean boundaries, respectively, prove the internal circulation is almost independent of the hydrography outside the ice shelf. Merely driven by the pressure-dependence of the sea-water freezing point (-0.000753 K dbar-1), a stationary circulation pattern evolves, forced by the buoyancy flux due to melting and freezing. The redistribution of ice from deep to shallow ice-shelf drafts resembles the ice-pump mechanism. Its strength depends on the ice-thickness gradients, namely, the differences of the freezing point at the ice-shelf base. As simulated melting and accumulation rates convincingly reproduce the interactions observed at the base of the Ronne Ice Shelf, the present model can act as a tool coupling ice-ocean dynamics.

PUBLICATION RECORD

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-25 of 25 references · Page 1 of 1

CITED BY

Showing 1-45 of 45 citing papers · Page 1 of 1