Project Details
Projekt
Shelf ice - ocean dynamics and their interaction in the vicinity of ice rumples: A coupled 3D-model and application to selected Antarctic regions
Applicant
Professor Dr. Manfred A. Lange
Subject Area
Atmospheric Science
Term
from 2006 to 2009
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 26948946
By the Larsen Ice Shelf collapse at the Antarctic Peninsula during the last decade, it is well-known that ice shelves react sensitively to climate change. The stability of ice shelves depends on the existence of embayments and is largely influenced by ice rises and ice rumples acting as pinning points. Due to their smaller spatial extent, ice rumples react more sensitively to climate change than ice rises. This study will elucidate the role of ice rumples in the context of climate change impacts on Antarctic ice shelves. An increased surface accumulation will probably lead to thickening and thus more stable conditions of the ice shelves, while ocean warming and increasing surface temperatures will presumably lead to thinning ice shelves. In addition, sea-level rise can cause a total disintegration as a result of changed conditions at the contact between ice-shelf base and bedrock. This project strives to investigate the combined effects of these four processes. Our comprehensive investigation will include all components in the vicinity of an ice rumple: the ice shelf, the ocean and the grounded ice portion. We will improve and couple three existing numerical models for grounded ice bodies, ice shelves, and ocean, respectively. The resulting model package will be applied to selected regions of the Weddell or Ross Sea sector under different plausible climate scenarios. A comparison to results of previous uncoupled models will be carried out.
DFG Programme
Infrastructure Priority Programmes
