Thermal Response of a Small Ice Cap to Climatic Forcing

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Author: Hanson, Brian
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1990
• Subjects: Earth-Surface Processes; Baffin Island; Barnes Ice Cap; Canada; Baffin; Ice cap; Journal of Glaciology
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000005542; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000005542

Abstract Two-dimensional finite-element calculations of velocity and temperature fields have been applied to the energy balance of a cross-section of Barnes Ice Cap, Baffin Island, Canada. The flow plane currently is cooling near the ice divide and warming near the margin. Long-term simulations show a net warming trend followed by a cooling trend with a steady-state average temperature similar to the present. Sensitivity studies on an idealized version of the flow plane show that the overall temperature responds less than surface-temperature forcing, because a negative feedback in temperature advection is substantially larger than a positive feed-back in strain heating. The response times of the flow plane by itself are somewhat faster but of the same magnitude as response times that would be estimated from one-dimensional modeling. When bedrock-temperature calculations are included, response times increase an order of magnitude, but these do not substantially affect the short-term response.