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Aspect ratio affects iceberg melting

Eric W. Hester, Craig D. McConnochie, Claudia Cenedese, Louis-Alexandre Couston, and Geoffrey Vasil
Phys. Rev. Fluids 6, 023802 – Published 12 February 2021
Physics logo See Focus story: Iceberg Shape Affects Melting

Abstract

Iceberg meltwater is a critical freshwater flux from the cryosphere to the oceans. Global climate simulations therefore require simple and accurate parametrizations of iceberg melting. Iceberg shape is an important but often neglected aspect of iceberg melting. Icebergs have an enormous range of shapes and sizes, and distinct processes dominate basal and side melting. We show how different iceberg aspect ratios and relative ambient water velocities affect melting using a combined experimental and numerical study. The experimental results show significant variations in melting between different iceberg faces, as well as within each iceberg face. These findings are reproduced and explained with multiphysics numerical simulations. At high relative ambient velocities melting is largest on the side facing the flow, and mixing during vortex generation causes local increases in basal melt rates of over 50%. Double-diffusive buoyancy effects become significant when the relative ambient velocity is low. Existing melting parametrizations do not reproduce our findings. We propose several corrections to capture the influence of aspect ratio on iceberg melting.

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  • Received 22 September 2020
  • Accepted 4 January 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.6.023802

©2021 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Fluid DynamicsInterdisciplinary PhysicsNonlinear Dynamics

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Iceberg Shape Affects Melting

Published 12 February 2021

Experiments with large ice cubes show that the melting rate depends on the shape, an effect that climate modelers may need to consider.

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Authors & Affiliations

Eric W. Hester*

  • School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

Craig D. McConnochie

  • Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand

Claudia Cenedese

  • Department of Physical Oceanography, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA

Louis-Alexandre Couston

  • British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge CB3 0ET, United Kingdom and Univ Lyon, Ens de Lyon, Univ Claude Bernard, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique, F-69342 Lyon, France

Geoffrey Vasil

  • School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia   

  • *eric.hester@sydney.edu.au

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Vol. 6, Iss. 2 — February 2021

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