Greenland ice melange fragmentation theory curve parameters from digital elevation models (2011-2020)

• Main Authors: Ellyn Enderlin, Alexandra Friel, Jukes Liu, Michal Kopera
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2023
• Subjects: ICEBERGS; ICE SHEETS; GLACIERS; Greenland; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.18739/A2639K67K

These files contain the manually-adjusted fragmentation theory parameters fit to iceberg size distributions extracted from high-resolution digital elevation models for ice melange near the termini of 16 Greenland Ice Sheet outlet glaciers. Parameters can be used to solve the number density of iceberg fragments using the fragmentation theory curve for icebergs, as defined in Astrom et al. (2020; https://doi.org/ 10.1017/jog.2021.14), where n(v) = c1*v -a e -v/c2 + c3*dv*e -v/c4 . v is the mean volume for each “bin” in the iceberg size distribution and dv is the bin width. The first term on the right is a power law with a cut-off, which is used to describe the scale-invariant nature of brittle fragmentation. The second term on the right describes uncorrelated fractures that commonly produce large, tabular icebergs. The value for a is physically-based and is defined by the dimension of the variable and we use a=2. When the manually-adjusted equation to describe iceberg calving over-estimated the smallest iceberg size classes, the equation was modified to include a second power law function to account for secondary modification of the iceberg size distributions that cannot be explained by the calving processes: n(v) = c1*v -a e -v/c2 + c3*dv*e -v/c4 + c5*v -c6 These data can be used to identify the primary mechanisms responsible for iceberg calving for the sites and dates specified by the files.