Ice sheet modelling
To better understand the complex interactions between ice masses and the global climate system, the Alfred-Wegener-Institute operates a suite of numerical computer models capable of describing the flow and shape of natural ice masses in response to given environmental changes.
We apply
* three-dimensional
* time-dependent
* thermomechanically coupled
ice models that include
- ice sheets
incorporating
* visco-elastic lithosphere adjustment
* subglacial lakes
- ice shelves
incorporating
* grounding line migration
* calving processes (parameterized)
* ice-shelf -- ocean interaction
The models are forced with climate boundary conditions (e.g. temperature, precipitation, basal melting).
3-D models are applied to the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and the large Pleistocene ice sheets which covered the northern hemisphere continents during the Ice Ages. Running these models requires supercomputer power which is available both at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute in Bremerhaven and at the Deutsche Klimarechenzentrum in Hamburg.
Research is conducted on time scales ranging from Tertiary ice-sheet inception to glacial-interglacial cycles and future anthropogenic warming in close cooperation with the department Paleoclimate Dynamics
We address questions concerning hypotheses regarding e.g.,
the past history of the ice sheets
contribution to sea-level changes
ice sheet interactions with subglacial lakes
ice shelf interactions with the ocean circulation
onset and offset of glacier acceleration.