Abstract
The most rapid loss of ice from the Antarctic Ice Sheet is observed where ice streams flow into the ocean and begin to float, forming the great Antarctic ice shelves that surround much of the continent. Because these ice shelves are floating, their thinning does not greatly influence sea level. However, they also buttress the ice streams draining the ice sheet, and so ice shelf changes do significantly influence sea level by altering the discharge of grounded ice. Currently, the most significant loss of mass from the ice shelves is from melting at the base (although iceberg calving is a close second). Accessing the ocean beneath ice shelves is extremely difficult, so numerical models are invaluable for understanding the processes governing basal melting. This paper describes the different ways in which ice shelf/ocean interactions are modeled and discusses emerging directions that will enhance understanding of how the ice shelves are melting now and how this might change in the future.
Highlights
Mass loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet is accelerating (e.g., McMillan et al, 2014), with the most rapid ice loss observed where ice streams discharge into the ocean (Pritchard et al, 2012)
Tides Williams et al (1998) noted that: “the most obvious need is for a thermohaline model that incorporates tidal forcing,” but, until recently, most realistic three-dimensional models did not include tides
The heat and salt exchange coefficients and the drag coefficient in the ice melting parameterization sit at the heart of all ice/ocean models, but the physics represented by these parameters is uncertain, and the processes involved will remain subgrid scale in general ocean models for the foreseeable future
Summary
Mass loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet is accelerating (e.g., McMillan et al, 2014), with the most rapid ice loss observed where ice streams discharge into the ocean (Pritchard et al, 2012). In order to accurately simulate ice shelf basal melting, it is necessary to adequately capture the physics of the sub-ice boundary layer, water circulation and transport in the ice shelf cavity, and the processes in the open ocean involved in the delivery of heat in each of the three melting modes listed previously.
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