The effect of a new drag-law parameterization on ice shelf water plume dynamics

• Main Authors: Wilchinsky, AV, Feltham, DL, Holland, PR
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: AMER METEOROLOGICAL SOC 2007
• Subjects: OVERFLOW; OCEAN; MODEL; Antarctic; Antarc*; Ice Shelf
• Online Access: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/154805/

A drag law accounting for Ekman rotation adjacent to a flat, horizontal boundary is proposed for use in a plume model that is written in terms of the depth-mean velocity. The drag law contains a variable turning angle between the mean velocity and the drag imposed by the turbulent boundary layer. The effect of the variable turning angle in the drag law is studied for a plume of ice shelf water ( ISW) ascending and turning beneath an Antarctic ice shelf with draft decreasing away from the grounding line. As the ISW plume ascends the sloping ice shelf-ocean boundary, it can melt the ice shelf, which alters the buoyancy forcing driving the plume motion. Under these conditions, the typical turning angle is of order -10 degrees over most of the plume area for a range of drag coefficients ( the minus sign arises for the Southern Hemisphere). The rotation of the drag with respect to the mean velocity is found to be significant if the drag coefficient exceeds 0.003; in this case the plume body propagates farther along and across the base of the ice shelf than a plume with the standard quadratic drag law with no turning angle.