Polythermal conditions in arctic glaciers

Abstract

Englacial temperature measurements in Arctic valley glaciers suggest in the ablation zone the existence of a basal layer of temperate ice lying below the bulk of cold ice. For such a polythermal glacier, a mathematical model is presented that calculates the temperature in the cold part and the position of the cold-temperate transition surface (CTS). The model is based on the continuum hypothesis for ice and the ice-water mixture, and on the conservation laws for moisture and energy. Temperate ice is treated as a binary mixture of ice and water at the melting point of pure ice. Boundary and transition conditions are formulated for the free surface, the base and the intraglacial cold-temperate transition surface. The model is reduced to two dimensions (plane flow) and the shallow-ice approximation is invoked. The limit of very small moisture diffusivity is analysed by using a stationary model with further reduction to one dimension (parallel-sided slab), thus providing the means of a consistent formulation of the transition conditions for moisture and heat flux through the CTS at the limit of negligibly small moisture diffusion. The application of the model to the steady-state Laika Glacier, using present-day conditions, results in a wholly cold glacier with a cold sole, in sharp contrast to observations. The present polythermal state of this glacier is suspected to be a remnant of the varying climatic conditions and glacier geometry during the past few centuries. Steady-state solutions representing a polythermal structure can indeed be found within a range of prescribed conditions which are judged to be realistic for Laika Glacier at the last maximum extent of the glacier.