Thermal flow in glaciers: Application to the Lys Glacier (Italian Western Alps)

摘要

In the present work the thermal flow in a section of Lys Glacier, in Italian Western Alps, is investigated. This work represents the application of the model presented in De Biase and Deponti [1]. The velocity field is calculated assuming ice to be a perfectly plastic material. With this input data, the energy conservation equation is solved by the Finite Difference Method. In order to accurately model the complex geometry of the glacier section a regular but non-uniform grid has been used. General Finite Difference Formulae of second order accuracy have been used. The model has been applied to a section of Lys Glacier taking into account all the particular atmospheric conditions of the site and making two different hypotheses for the geothermal flux value at the base.