Response of valley glaciers to climate change and kinematic waves: a study with a numerical ice-flow model
Abstract A simple numerical flow model that couples mass divergence directly to basal shear stress as the only driving force is used to study kinematic waves. Kinematic waves that result from a perturbation of the ice thickness or mass balance are compared with the linear kinematic-wave theory of Ny...
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
1995
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000017834 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000017834 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0022143000017834 2024-03-03T08:46:01+00:00 Response of valley glaciers to climate change and kinematic waves: a study with a numerical ice-flow model van de Wal, R. S. W. Oerlemans, J. 1995 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000017834 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000017834 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) Journal of Glaciology volume 41, issue 137, page 142-152 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 Earth-Surface Processes journal-article 1995 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000017834 2024-02-08T08:40:37Z Abstract A simple numerical flow model that couples mass divergence directly to basal shear stress as the only driving force is used to study kinematic waves. Kinematic waves that result from a perturbation of the ice thickness or mass balance are compared with the linear kinematic-wave theory of Nye/Weertman. The wave velocity is calculated as a function of the wavelength and amplitude of a perturbation. The modelled wave velocity is typically 6–8 times the vertically averaged velocity in the flow direction whereas linear theory predicts a factor of only 5. An experiment with the geometry of Hintereisferner, Austria, shows that the increase in the local ice velocity during a kinematic wave is about 10% but varies slightly depending on the position along the glacier and the amplitude of the kinematic wave. Kinematic waves are thus hard to detect from velocity measurements. The dynamics of simple continuity models are rich enough to support a variety of kinematic-wave phenomena. Such models are a useful tool to study the response of valley glaciers to climate change. Article in Journal/Newspaper Journal of Glaciology Cambridge University Press Weertman ENVELOPE(-67.753,-67.753,-66.972,-66.972) Journal of Glaciology 41 137 142 152 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Cambridge University Press |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
topic |
Earth-Surface Processes |
spellingShingle |
Earth-Surface Processes van de Wal, R. S. W. Oerlemans, J. Response of valley glaciers to climate change and kinematic waves: a study with a numerical ice-flow model |
topic_facet |
Earth-Surface Processes |
description |
Abstract A simple numerical flow model that couples mass divergence directly to basal shear stress as the only driving force is used to study kinematic waves. Kinematic waves that result from a perturbation of the ice thickness or mass balance are compared with the linear kinematic-wave theory of Nye/Weertman. The wave velocity is calculated as a function of the wavelength and amplitude of a perturbation. The modelled wave velocity is typically 6–8 times the vertically averaged velocity in the flow direction whereas linear theory predicts a factor of only 5. An experiment with the geometry of Hintereisferner, Austria, shows that the increase in the local ice velocity during a kinematic wave is about 10% but varies slightly depending on the position along the glacier and the amplitude of the kinematic wave. Kinematic waves are thus hard to detect from velocity measurements. The dynamics of simple continuity models are rich enough to support a variety of kinematic-wave phenomena. Such models are a useful tool to study the response of valley glaciers to climate change. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
van de Wal, R. S. W. Oerlemans, J. |
author_facet |
van de Wal, R. S. W. Oerlemans, J. |
author_sort |
van de Wal, R. S. W. |
title |
Response of valley glaciers to climate change and kinematic waves: a study with a numerical ice-flow model |
title_short |
Response of valley glaciers to climate change and kinematic waves: a study with a numerical ice-flow model |
title_full |
Response of valley glaciers to climate change and kinematic waves: a study with a numerical ice-flow model |
title_fullStr |
Response of valley glaciers to climate change and kinematic waves: a study with a numerical ice-flow model |
title_full_unstemmed |
Response of valley glaciers to climate change and kinematic waves: a study with a numerical ice-flow model |
title_sort |
response of valley glaciers to climate change and kinematic waves: a study with a numerical ice-flow model |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
1995 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000017834 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000017834 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-67.753,-67.753,-66.972,-66.972) |
geographic |
Weertman |
geographic_facet |
Weertman |
genre |
Journal of Glaciology |
genre_facet |
Journal of Glaciology |
op_source |
Journal of Glaciology volume 41, issue 137, page 142-152 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000017834 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
container_volume |
41 |
container_issue |
137 |
container_start_page |
142 |
op_container_end_page |
152 |
_version_ |
1792501806131052544 |