Evaluation of an emergent feature of sub-shelf melt oscillations from an idealized coupled ice sheet–ocean model using FISOC (v1.1) – ROMSIceShelf (v1.0) – Elmer/Ice (v9.0)

Abstract - 1 ∼ 0.7  m yr- 1 ∼ 6  years between year 30 and 100 depending on the experimental design. The melt oscillations emerged in the coupled system and the standalone ocean model using a prescribed change of cavity geometry. We found that the oscillation feature is closely related to the discretized ungrounding of the ice sheet, exposing new ocean, and is likely strengthened by a combination of positive buoyancy–melt feedback and/or melt–geometry feedback near the grounding line, and the frequent coupling of ice geometry and ocean evolution. Sensitivity tests demonstrate that the oscillation feature is always present, regardless of the choice of coupling interval, vertical resolution in the ocean model, tracer properties of cells ungrounded by the retreating ice sheet, or the dependency of friction velocities to the vertical resolution. However, the amplitude, phase, and sub-cycle variability of the oscillation varied significantly across the different configurations. We were unable to ultimately determine whether the feature arises purely due to numerical issues (related to discretization) or a compounding of multiple physical processes amplifying a numerical artifact. We suggest a pathway and choices of physical parameters to help other efforts understand the coupled ice sheet–ocean system using numerical models.

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Evaluation of an emergent feature of sub-shelf melt oscillations from an idealized coupled ice sheet–ocean model using FISOC (v1.1) – ROMSIceShelf (v1.0) – Elmer/Ice (v9.0) ; volume:15 ; number:13 ; year:2022 ; pages:5421-5439 ; extent:19 ; Geoscientific model development ; 15, Heft 13 (2022), 5421-5439 (gesamt 19)

Contributors, Places and Time

• Creator: Zhao, Chen ; Gladstone, Rupert ; Galton-Fenzi, Benjamin Keith ; Gwyther, David ; Hattermann, Tore

Further information

• DOI: 10.5194/gmd-15-5421-2022
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-2022072105284762463536
• Rights: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 15.08.2025, 7:39 AM CEST