CAREER: Investigating Ice Shelf - Ocean Interaction Using Numerical and Physical Laboratory Techniques

New York University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

This award is being made under the Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) which is intended to provide stable support at a sufficient level to allow the achievement of education and research career development objectives of the program. The research objective of this award is to advance our understanding of the numerical simulation of the dynamic and thermodynamic interactions between the ocean and polar ice shelves. The educational objective is to communicate effectively the fundamental principles of geophysical fluid dynamics, and to discover new solutions and solution techniques to complex polar environmental problems. Floating antarctic ice shelves are fed by the flow of ice from the continent, and sooner or later break up and melt. It is a part of the global hydrological cycle that can have a significant effect on long-term sea level rise, and by introducing fresh water at the ocean surface, can stabilize the upper ocean and reduce the vertical exchange of water masses. These processes are beginning to be simulated in numerical models and will be extended and improved with this work. The expected result is a more realistic, physically based and observationally validated numerical model that faithfully describes the fundamental controls and interactive feedbacks of the ice shelf and ocean system. The educational goals will be met through the introduction of computational learning modules and laboratory experiments to several courses in a new Center for Atmosphere/Ocean Studies, formalized as a joint effort between the Courant Institute and New York University. This project will make observationally based and theoretically founded computer and physical laboratory models of ice-ocean interaction accessible to students in order to provide them with a deeper insight into the nature of real geophysical fluid dynamical flows.