Oral Presentation AMOS Annual Meeting and International Conference on Tropical Meteorology and Oceanography

Stratified turbulence in the ocean boundary layer below ice shelves (#147)

Catherine A Vreugdenhil 1 , John R Taylor 1
  1. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, United Kingdom

The melting of ice shelves around Antarctica has implications for ocean circulation and sea-level rise. Turbulence and mixing in the boundary layer below ice shelves stand to effect ocean driven melting, however knowledge of these processes is incomplete. Here, we use large-eddy numerical simulations to resolve all but the smallest scales of turbulence in an idealised ocean domain. The domain is bounded from above by the ice shelf base under melting conditions that lead to a vertical stratification in both temperature and salinity. The simulations solve the Boussinesq and non-hydrostatic equations of motion, together with a state-of-the-art subgrid-scale model. Far-field ocean currents are included to examine how such dynamical processes can impact the stratified turbulence in the boundary layer and hence ice shelf melt rates. Conditions are chosen similar to those at Antarctic sites to compare with observations and allow exploration of future scenarios.