Modeling the breakup of tabular icebergs
Nearly half of the freshwater flux from the Antarctic Ice Sheet into the Southern Ocean occurs in the form of large tabular icebergs that calve off the continent's ice shelves. However, because of difficulties in adequately simulating their breakup, large Antarctic icebergs to date have either...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt8nv0m1mf 2023-11-05T03:36:58+01:00 Modeling the breakup of tabular icebergs England, Mark R Wagner, Till JW Eisenman, Ian eabd1273 2020-12-18 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8nv0m1mf unknown eScholarship, University of California qt8nv0m1mf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8nv0m1mf public Science Advances, vol 6, iss 51 Earth Sciences Oceanography Life Below Water article 2020 ftcdlib 2023-10-09T18:05:25Z Nearly half of the freshwater flux from the Antarctic Ice Sheet into the Southern Ocean occurs in the form of large tabular icebergs that calve off the continent's ice shelves. However, because of difficulties in adequately simulating their breakup, large Antarctic icebergs to date have either not been represented in models or represented but with no breakup scheme such that they consistently survive too long and travel too far compared with observations. Here, we introduce a representation of iceberg fracturing using a breakup scheme based on the "footloose mechanism." We optimize the parameters of this breakup scheme by forcing the iceberg model with an ocean state estimate and comparing the modeled iceberg trajectories and areas with the Antarctic Iceberg Tracking Database. We show that including large icebergs and a representation of their breakup substantially affects the iceberg meltwater distribution, with implications for the circulation and stratification of the Southern Ocean. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet Ice Shelves Iceberg* Southern Ocean University of California: eScholarship |
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Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Earth Sciences Oceanography Life Below Water |
spellingShingle |
Earth Sciences Oceanography Life Below Water England, Mark R Wagner, Till JW Eisenman, Ian Modeling the breakup of tabular icebergs |
topic_facet |
Earth Sciences Oceanography Life Below Water |
description |
Nearly half of the freshwater flux from the Antarctic Ice Sheet into the Southern Ocean occurs in the form of large tabular icebergs that calve off the continent's ice shelves. However, because of difficulties in adequately simulating their breakup, large Antarctic icebergs to date have either not been represented in models or represented but with no breakup scheme such that they consistently survive too long and travel too far compared with observations. Here, we introduce a representation of iceberg fracturing using a breakup scheme based on the "footloose mechanism." We optimize the parameters of this breakup scheme by forcing the iceberg model with an ocean state estimate and comparing the modeled iceberg trajectories and areas with the Antarctic Iceberg Tracking Database. We show that including large icebergs and a representation of their breakup substantially affects the iceberg meltwater distribution, with implications for the circulation and stratification of the Southern Ocean. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
England, Mark R Wagner, Till JW Eisenman, Ian |
author_facet |
England, Mark R Wagner, Till JW Eisenman, Ian |
author_sort |
England, Mark R |
title |
Modeling the breakup of tabular icebergs |
title_short |
Modeling the breakup of tabular icebergs |
title_full |
Modeling the breakup of tabular icebergs |
title_fullStr |
Modeling the breakup of tabular icebergs |
title_full_unstemmed |
Modeling the breakup of tabular icebergs |
title_sort |
modeling the breakup of tabular icebergs |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8nv0m1mf |
op_coverage |
eabd1273 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet Ice Shelves Iceberg* Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet Ice Shelves Iceberg* Southern Ocean |
op_source |
Science Advances, vol 6, iss 51 |
op_relation |
qt8nv0m1mf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8nv0m1mf |
op_rights |
public |
_version_ |
1781692289803878400 |