Climate, the Antarctic ice sheet and ground heat flux
A simple steady-state energy and mass-balance model of the Antarctic ice sheet is developed. Basically it is a set of two equations with two unknowns of steady-state height h and potential basal temperature T b . T b determines whether, and to what extent, there is liquid water at the base of the ic...
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| Published in | Annals of glaciology Vol. 21; pp. 144 - 148 |
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| Main Authors | , |
| Format | Journal Article |
| Language | English |
| Published |
1995
|
| Online Access | Get full text |
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| Summary: | A simple steady-state energy and mass-balance model of the Antarctic ice sheet is developed. Basically it is a set of two equations with two unknowns of steady-state height
h
and potential basal temperature
T
b
.
T
b
determines whether, and to what extent, there is liquid water at the base of the ice which in turn affects the values of
h
and
T
b
. Simultaneous changes of sea-level temperature and precipitation (changes related to each other as might be expected from global climate models) indicate a maximum in the field of possible steady-state ice volumes which may not be far from the presently observed conditions. The possibility of cyclical variation in ground heat flux associated with convection of water and heat in the continental crust is discussed. The mechanism might be capable of generating cycles of ice-sheet volume with relatively short periods similar to those of Milankovitch forcing. |
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| ISSN: | 0260-3055 1727-5644 |
| DOI: | 10.1017/S0260305500015731 |