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SUMMARY:Peter Washam (Georgia Institute of Technology)
DTSTART:20210224T140000Z
DTEND:20210224T150000Z
DTSTAMP:20260423T021419Z
UID:BAS-PO/11
DESCRIPTION:Title: <a href="https://researchseminars.org/talk/BAS-PO/11/">
 A synthesis of Antarctic ice-ocean boundary observations from the underwat
 er vehicle Icefin</a>\nby Peter Washam (Georgia Institute of Technology) a
 s part of BAS Polar Oceans Seminar\n\n\nAbstract\nThe accumulated mass los
 s from the Earth’s cryosphere currently represents the largest contribut
 ion to global sea level rise.  A large portion of this mass loss is driven
  by physical processes occurring at the marine margin of the Antarctic and
  Greenland ice sheets\, where the ice sheet interacts with the ocean. Howe
 ver\, there are extremely limited direct observations of the ice-ocean int
 erface where these two physical environments meet. Here we synthesize thre
 e years of ice and ocean observations in Antarctica from McMurdo Sound and
  beneath the Ross and Thwaites ice shelves\, using hydrographic and sonar 
 data\, and video footage from the underwater vehicle Icefin. Near-ice ocea
 n conditions vary between these environments from below freezing to greate
 r than two degrees above freezing\, with considerable variability in curre
 nt velocities. Ice base morphology likewise varies within and between envi
 ronments\, with ablating ice forming scallops\, runnels\, and terraces wit
 h horizontal scales of meters and vertical scales of centimeters to meters
 . Supercooled waters in turn form marine ice platelets\, which accumulate 
 in both unconsolidated and rigid bulbous masses observed at meter scales. 
 These variations in ice basal roughness affect the turbulent transfer of h
 eat and salt from the ocean to the ice\, and represent one of the most poo
 rly constrained parameters in the equations that describe ice-ocean intera
 ctions. Our results provide direct observations of the ice-ocean boundary 
 in several environments\, and therefore inform on these processes that are
  critical for the future behavior of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheet
 s\, as well as other peripheral ice caps that contain marine-terminating o
 utlet glaciers.\n
LOCATION:https://researchseminars.org/talk/BAS-PO/11/
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