Climate Sensitivity of a Numerical Model of Ice-Sheet Dynamics and Thermodynamics

摘要

The climate of the earth is a complex of interacting parts, of which ice sheets vary most slowly. Ice sheets have been coupled to climate only in the simplest models because of the great differences in the time scales of their responses, and because the models previously used for ice sheets have had limited physical capabilities in their responses to climatic influences. A finite-element model developed here responds realistically to climatic forcing. The model uses the method of weighted residuals to solve the general equations for steady motion of a nonlinear viscous medium and for energy conservation with forced advection, internally generated heat, and diffusion in a two-dimensional, vertical flow-plane. A number of experiments using the finite-element simulated a flowplane on the south dome of Barnes Ice Cap on Baffin Island. Shear stresses play the major role in the stress balance.