Parameterization of basal friction near grounding lines in a one-dimensional ice sheet model

Abstract

Ice sheets and ice shelves are linked by the transition zone, the region where flow dominated by vertical shear stress makes a transition to flow dominated by extensional stress. Adequate resolution of the transition zone is necessary for numerically accurate ice sheet-ice shelf simulations. The required resolution depends on how the basal physics is parameterized. We propose a new, simple parameterization of the effective pressure near the grounding line, combined with an existing friction law linking effective pressure to basal stress and sliding, in a one-dimensional, fixed-grid, vertically integrated model. This parameterization represents connectivity between the basal hydrological system and the ocean in the transition zone. Our model produces a smooth transition between finite basal friction in the ice sheet and zero basal friction in the ice shelf. In a set of experiments based on the Marine Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project (MISMIP), we show that with a smoother basal shear stress, the model yields accurate steady-state results at a fixed-grid resolution of ~1 km. © Author(s) 2014.