Supplementary material from "Asymptotic analysis of subglacial plumes in stratified environments"

• Main Authors: Bradley, Alexander T., Rosie Williams, C., Jenkins, Adrian, Arthern, Robert
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: The Royal Society 2022
• Subjects: Oceanography; FOS Earth and related environmental sciences; 40602 Glaciology; 19999 Mathematical Sciences not elsewhere classified; FOS Mathematics; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelf; Ice Shelves
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5862418; https://rs.figshare.com/collections/Supplementary_material_from_Asymptotic_analysis_of_subglacial_plumes_in_stratified_environments_/5862418

Accurate predictions of basal melt rates on ice shelves are necessary for precise projections of the future behaviour of ice sheets. The computational expense associated with completely resolving the cavity circulation using an ocean model makes this approach unfeasible for multi-century simulations, and parametrizations of melt rates are required. At present, some of the most advanced melt rate parametrizations are based on a one-dimensional approximation to the melt rate that emerges from the theory of subglacial plumes applied to ice shelves with constant basal slopes and uniform ambient ocean conditions; in this work, we present an asymptotic analysis of the corresponding equations in which non-constant basal slopes and typical ambient conditions are imposed. This analysis exploits the small aspect ratio of ice shelf bases, the relatively weak thermal driving and the relative slenderness of the region separating warm, salty water at depth and cold, fresh water at the surface in the ambient ocean. We construct an approximation to the melt rate that is based on this analysis, which shows good agreement with numerical solutions in a wide variety of cases, suggesting a path towards improved predictions of basal melt rates in ice-sheet models.