Work

A Laboratory Study of Iceberg Side Melting in Vertically Sheared Flows

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: An earlier study indicates that the side melting of icebergs subject to vertically homogeneous horizontal velocities is controlled by two distinct regimes, which depend on the melt plume behavior and produce a nonlinear dependence of side melt rate on velocity. Here, we extend this study to consider ice blocks melting in a two-layer vertically sheared flow in a laboratory setting. It is found that the use of the vertically averaged flow speed in current melt parameterizations gives an underestimate of the submarine side melt rate, in part because of the nonlinearity of the dependence of the side melt rate on flow speed but also because vertical shear in the horizontal velocity profile fundamentally changes the flow splitting around the ice block and consequently the velocity felt by the ice surface. An observational record of 90 icebergs in a Greenland fjord suggests that this effect could produce an average underestimate of iceberg side melt rates of 21%.

Source: Journal of Physical Oceanography

DOI: 10.1175/jpo-d-17-0185.1

Authors: A. FitzMaurice, C. Cenedese, F. Straneo

Institutions: Princeton University, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Language: English

Topic: Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics

Subfield: Atmospheric Science

Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Awards: G1221885236, Collaborative Research: A field and laboratory study of the melting processes of icebergs in a Greenland fjord, Collaborative Research: A field and laboratory study of the melting processes of icebergs in a Greenland fjord, Collaborative Research: Detecting Glacier Calving Events from Ocean Waves and Underwater Acoustics