Progress on Coupled Land Ice Modeling in ACME

Abstract

We summarize progress and challenges in testing the new MPAS-Land Ice model and coupling it to ACME. Results from large-scale, moderate-resolution, stand-alone MPAS-Land Ice simulations using realistic geometries and boundary conditions are compared to similar simulations using the Community Ice Sheet Model (CISM). We show output from MPAS-Ocean as applied to idealized, benchmark test cases of sub-ice shelf circulation and compare with results from previous DOE modeling efforts. We also describe progress and remaining work associated with 1) making MPAS-Land Ice a new ACME model component, 2) adding the software infrastructure required to couple MPAS-Land Ice to other ACME components, and 3) simulating increasingly complex ice flow in idealized and realistic settings, in order to verify and validate MPAS-Land Ice as a coupled ACME component.