Coupled modelling of subglacial hydrology and calving-front melting at Store Glacier, West Greenland ...

• Main Authors: Cook, SJ, Christoffersen, P, Todd, J, Slater, D, Chauché, N
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus GmbH 2020
• Subjects: 3707 Hydrology; 3709 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience; 37 Earth Sciences; 13 Climate Action; Greenland; glacier
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.52516; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/305436

Abstract. We investigate the subglacial hydrology of Store Glacier in West Greenland, using the open-source, full-Stokes model Elmer/Ice in a novel 3D application that includes a distributed water sheet, as well as discrete channelised drainage, and a 1D model to simulate submarine plumes at the calving front. At first, we produce a baseline winter scenario with no surface meltwater. We then investigate the hydrological system during summer, focussing specifically on 2012 and 2017, which provide examples of high and low surface-meltwater inputs, respectively. We show that the common assumption of zero winter freshwater flux is invalid, and we find channels over 1 m2 in area occurring up to 5 km inland in winter. We also find that the production of water from friction and geothermal heat is sufficiently high to drive year-round plume activity, with ice-front melting averaging 0.15 m d−1. When the model is forced with seasonally averaged surface melt from summer, we show a hydrological system with significant ...