Increasing numerical stability of mountain valley glacier simulations: implementation and testing of free-surface stabilization in Elmer/Ice
This paper concerns a numerical stabilization method for free-surface ice flow called the free-surface stabilization algorithm (FSSA). In the current study, the FSSA is implemented into the numerical ice-flow software Elmer/Ice and tested on synthetic two-dimensional (2D) glaciers, as well as on the...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:egusphere113018 2023-09-05T13:19:39+02:00 Increasing numerical stability of mountain valley glacier simulations: implementation and testing of free-surface stabilization in Elmer/Ice Löfgren, André Zwinger, Thomas Råback, Peter Helanow, Christian Ahlkrona, Josefin 2023-08-09 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1507 https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-1507/ eng eng doi:10.5194/egusphere-2023-1507 https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-1507/ eISSN: Text 2023 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1507 2023-08-14T16:24:20Z This paper concerns a numerical stabilization method for free-surface ice flow called the free-surface stabilization algorithm (FSSA). In the current study, the FSSA is implemented into the numerical ice-flow software Elmer/Ice and tested on synthetic two-dimensional (2D) glaciers, as well as on the real-world glacier of Midtre Lovénbreen, Svalbard. For the synthetic 2D cases it is found that the FSSA method increases the largest stable time-step size at least by a factor of ten for the case of a gently sloping ice surface (3°), and by at least a factor of five for cases of moderately to steeply inclined surfaces (6° to 12°) . Furthermore, the FSSA method increases the overall accuracy for all surface slopes. The largest stable time-step size is found to be smallest for the case of a low sloping surface, despite having overall smaller velocities. For Midtre Lovénbreen the FSSA method doubles the largest stable time-step size, however, the accuracy is in this case slightly lowered in the deeper parts of the glacier, while it increases near edges. The implication is that the non-FSSA method might be more accurate at predicting glacier thinning, while the FSSA method is more suitable for predicting future glacier extent. A possible application of the larger time-step sizes allowed for by the FSSA is for spin-up simulations, where relatively fast changing climate data can be incorporated on short time scales, while the slowly changing velocity field is updated over larger time scales. Text glacier Svalbard Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Svalbard |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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ftcopernicus |
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English |
description |
This paper concerns a numerical stabilization method for free-surface ice flow called the free-surface stabilization algorithm (FSSA). In the current study, the FSSA is implemented into the numerical ice-flow software Elmer/Ice and tested on synthetic two-dimensional (2D) glaciers, as well as on the real-world glacier of Midtre Lovénbreen, Svalbard. For the synthetic 2D cases it is found that the FSSA method increases the largest stable time-step size at least by a factor of ten for the case of a gently sloping ice surface (3°), and by at least a factor of five for cases of moderately to steeply inclined surfaces (6° to 12°) . Furthermore, the FSSA method increases the overall accuracy for all surface slopes. The largest stable time-step size is found to be smallest for the case of a low sloping surface, despite having overall smaller velocities. For Midtre Lovénbreen the FSSA method doubles the largest stable time-step size, however, the accuracy is in this case slightly lowered in the deeper parts of the glacier, while it increases near edges. The implication is that the non-FSSA method might be more accurate at predicting glacier thinning, while the FSSA method is more suitable for predicting future glacier extent. A possible application of the larger time-step sizes allowed for by the FSSA is for spin-up simulations, where relatively fast changing climate data can be incorporated on short time scales, while the slowly changing velocity field is updated over larger time scales. |
format |
Text |
author |
Löfgren, André Zwinger, Thomas Råback, Peter Helanow, Christian Ahlkrona, Josefin |
spellingShingle |
Löfgren, André Zwinger, Thomas Råback, Peter Helanow, Christian Ahlkrona, Josefin Increasing numerical stability of mountain valley glacier simulations: implementation and testing of free-surface stabilization in Elmer/Ice |
author_facet |
Löfgren, André Zwinger, Thomas Råback, Peter Helanow, Christian Ahlkrona, Josefin |
author_sort |
Löfgren, André |
title |
Increasing numerical stability of mountain valley glacier simulations: implementation and testing of free-surface stabilization in Elmer/Ice |
title_short |
Increasing numerical stability of mountain valley glacier simulations: implementation and testing of free-surface stabilization in Elmer/Ice |
title_full |
Increasing numerical stability of mountain valley glacier simulations: implementation and testing of free-surface stabilization in Elmer/Ice |
title_fullStr |
Increasing numerical stability of mountain valley glacier simulations: implementation and testing of free-surface stabilization in Elmer/Ice |
title_full_unstemmed |
Increasing numerical stability of mountain valley glacier simulations: implementation and testing of free-surface stabilization in Elmer/Ice |
title_sort |
increasing numerical stability of mountain valley glacier simulations: implementation and testing of free-surface stabilization in elmer/ice |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1507 https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-1507/ |
geographic |
Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Svalbard |
genre |
glacier Svalbard |
genre_facet |
glacier Svalbard |
op_source |
eISSN: |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/egusphere-2023-1507 https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-1507/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1507 |
_version_ |
1776200446495424512 |