Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

An Ice-Shelf Model Test Based On The Ross Ice Shelf, D. R. Macayeal, V. Rommelaere, P. Huybrechts, Christina L. Hulbe, J. Determann, C. Ritz

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

A standard numerical experiment featuring the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, is presented as a test package for the development and intercomparison of ice-shelf models. The emphasis of this package is solution of stress-equilibrium equations for an ice-shelf velocity consistent with present observations. As a demonstration, we compare five independently developed ice-shelf models based on finite-difference and finite-element methods. Our results suggest that there is little difference between finite-element and finite-difference methods in capturing the basic, large-scale flow features of the ice shelf. We additionally show that the fit between model and observed velocity depends strongly on the ice-shelf temperature field …