Title
Ice-shelf ocean boundary layer physics and its representation in E3SM
Authors
Carolyn Begeman (LANL), Xylar Asay-Davis (LANL), Luke Van Roekel (Unlicensed) (LANL)
Abstract
A key cryosphere focus within E3SM is the impacts of ocean-ice shelf interactions on Antarctic ice loss and sea level rise. However, a poor representation of ice-shelf ocean boundary layer physics hinders our assessment of these impacts. We undertake very high resolution ocean modeling (large-eddy simulation) to illuminate this boundary layer physics and develop parameterizations of scalar and momentum transport suitable for ice-shelf melt prediction in MPAS-Ocean and other global ocean models. Here we present early results from this work, which show the development of a buoyant boundary layer near the ice shelf base that modulates ice shelf melt rates.