Publication Date:
2022-06-22
Description:
Basal melting of marine‐terminating glaciers, through its impact on the forces that control the flow of the glaciers, is one of the major factors determining sea level rise in a world of global warming. Detailed quantitative understanding of dynamic and thermodynamic processes in melt‐water plumes underneath the ice‐ocean interface is essential for calculating the subglacial melt rate. The aim of this study is therefore to develop a numerical model of high spatial and process resolution to consistently reproduce the transports of heat and salt from the ambient water across the plume into the glacial ice. Based on boundary layer relations for momentum and tracers, stationary analytical solutions for the vertical structure of subglacial non‐rotational plumes are derived, including entrainment at the plume base. These solutions are used to develop and test convergent numerical formulations for the momentum and tracer fluxes across the ice‐ocean interface. After implementation of these formulations into a water‐column model coupled to a second‐moment turbulence closure model, simulations of a transient rotational subglacial plume are performed. The simulated entrainment rate of ambient water entering the plume at its base is compared to existing entrainment parameterizations based on bulk properties of the plume. A sensitivity study with variations of interfacial slope, interfacial roughness and ambient water temperature reveals substantial performance differences between these bulk formulations. An existing entrainment parameterization based on the Froude number and the Ekman number proves to have the highest predictive skill. Recalibration to subglacial plumes using a variable drag coefficient further improves its performance.
Description:
Plain Language Summary:
In a world of global warming, the melting of glaciers terminating as floating ice tongues into the oceans of Arctic and Antarctic regions allows those glaciers to flow faster and hence to make a considerable contribution to global mean sea‐level rise. Underneath the ice‐ocean interface, turbulent currents of the order of 10 m thickness (so‐called plumes) develop that transport the melt water from the grounding line where the glacier enters the ocean toward the calving front that marks the seaward end of the glacier. At its base, ambient relatively warm and salty ocean water is mixed into the plumes and is vertically transported toward the ice‐ocean interface, where the melting is increased due to the additional heat supply. Understanding these processes is essential for their incorporation into computer models for the prediction of such melt processes. In this study, an accurate simulation model for the water column is constructed that is able to consistently reproduce these processes. The algorithms developed here are proven to provide reliable results also for models with only a few grid points across the plume and can therefore be implemented into climate models with surface‐following coordinates to more accurately simulate future scenarios of sea level rise.
Description:
Key Points:
A vertically resolving model with second‐moment turbulence closure has been constructed for subglacial plumes.
Convergent numerical formulations for the ocean‐to‐ice fluxes of momentum, freshwater and heat have been derived from an analytical model.
Model results are consistent with bulk parameterizations for the entrainment of ambient water.
Description:
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002347
Description:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6203838
Keywords:
ddc:550
Language:
English
Type:
doc-type:article
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