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Dynamics Of Thermally Induced Ice Streams Simulated With A Higher-Order Flow Model, Douglas Brinkerhoff, Jesse Johnson
Dynamics Of Thermally Induced Ice Streams Simulated With A Higher-Order Flow Model, Douglas Brinkerhoff, Jesse Johnson
Computer Science Faculty Publications
We use a new discretization technique to solve the higher-order thermomechanically coupled equations of glacier evolution. We find that under radially symmetric continuum equations, small perturbations in symmetry due to the discretization are sufficient to produce the initiation of non-symmetric thermomechanical instabilities which we interpret as ice streams, in good agreement with previous studies which have indicated a similar instability. We find that the inclusion of membrane stresses regularizes the size of predicted streams, eliminating the ill-posedness evident in previous investigations of ice stream generation through thermomechanical instability. Ice streams exhibit strongly irregular periodicity which is influenced by neighboring ice …