A stabilized finite element method for calculating balance velocities in ice sheets
We present a numerical method for calculating vertically averaged velocity fields using a mass conservation approach, commonly known as balance velocities. This allows for an unstructured grid, is not dependent on a heuristic flow routing algorithm, and is both parallelizable and efficient. We apply...
| Published in: | Geoscientific Model Development |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | unknown |
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ScholarWorks at University of Montana
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cs_pubs/29 https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-1275-2015 https://scholarworks.umt.edu/context/cs_pubs/article/1029/viewcontent/A.pdf |
| Summary: | We present a numerical method for calculating vertically averaged velocity fields using a mass conservation approach, commonly known as balance velocities. This allows for an unstructured grid, is not dependent on a heuristic flow routing algorithm, and is both parallelizable and efficient. We apply the method to calculate depth-averaged velocities of the Greenland Ice Sheet, and find that the method produces grid-independent velocity fields for a sufficient parameterization of horizontal plane stresses on flow directions. We show that balance velocity can be used as the forward model for a constrained optimization problem that can be used to fill gaps and smooth strong gradients in InSAR velocity fields. |
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