AISS-mélange - Antarctic Ice Sheet stability: ocean-ice-mélange model to reduce uncertainties in sea level rise projections

The purpose of this project is to better understand ice-ocean processes involved in the potential collapse of the Antarctic Ice Sheet to help reducing uncertainties in sea level rise projections.

Thwaites glacier, Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica, already retreating and doomed to collapse, is used as an analogue to the future of the ice sheet. The glacier tongue is composed of broken pieces of icebergs grounded on the sea floor on a shallow zone. Its buttressing effect reduces the ice speed but is weakened by ocean melting.

The aim of the project is to understand the processes involved at the ocean-ice interface of this ‘mélange tongue’ by coupling a continuum ice flow model, a particle model and an ocean model.

The novelty of this project is to consider the broken state of an ice tongue as a potential future evolution of ice shelves in Antarctica and model its interaction with the ocean.

The first step is to build the coupling model using my own coupling experience of ice models and be assisted by my host at the University of Grenoble to add the ocean model.

The second step is to test the sensitivity of the coupling by using a synthetic glacier model with similar characteristics as Thwaites glacier.

The last step is to apply the coupling to newly acquired data provided by my host at the University of St Andrews and run projections based on different scenarii. In St Andrews, they are studying the limit to stability of the glacier, which is complementary to my project.