Laboratory experiments of eddy blocking by Ice shelves

• Main Authors: BUCK, Justin, LANE-SERFF, Gregory
• Other Authors: tél : [phone], mél : [e-mail], Laboratoire : Mechanical Aerospace and Civil Engineering, Université : University of Manchester , Manchester, M60 1QD MANCHESTER, ROYAUME UNI (gb)
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: AFM, Maison de la Mécanique, 39/41 rue Louis Blanc - 92400 Courbevoie 2007
• Subjects: C3 Stratified and rotating flows; Convection; eddy blocking; downslope flow; ice shelf; Ronne Ice Shelf; Antarc*; Antarctica; Filchner Ronne Ice Shelf; Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf; Ice Shelf; Ice Shelves
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2042/15643

Eddies have been identified in mooring records from along the front of the Ronne ice shelf, Antarctica. This is an area where dense High Salinity Shelf Water (HSSW) flows into the cavity beneath the Filchner Ronne Ice Shelf (FRIS). This work uses experiments conducted on a small 1.2 and a large 13 m diameter rotating table considering the effect that an ice shelf has on the propagation of eddies. The paper focuses on the behaviour of eddies in the region of the ice front and it aims to address whether eddies can propagate beyond the ice front into the ice shelf cavity. It is shown that a relatively small change in ice shelf thickness is required to impede the propagation of eddies into the cavity beneath the ice shelf. However, when stratification is present eddies appear to propagate into the ice shelf cavity.