Numerical Simulation Of Antarctic Ice Sheet Dynamics And Evolution

As a vital part in the earth system, the stability and evolution of polar ice sheet will cause a significant influence on global climate and sea level. Therefore, it is of grave importance to monitor polar ice sheet in an effective way. However, there are several limitations for traditional geophysical methods in monitoring ice sheet. Airborne and ground penetrating radar can capture ice sheet in a large scale, but they cannot acquire subglacial information; while in situ survey can get detailed information but it is very time consuming. This thesis introduces numerical modeling techniques in simulating ice sheet dynamics, which provides another way to monitor ice sheet.PISM and Elmer/Ice are discussed as two main stream numerical model. They are based on SIA/SSA assumption and Full Stokes Equation, and thus are based on finite difference and finite element method respectively.In particular, this thesis discusses theoretical basis of PISM and Elmer/Ice, and indicates that PISM is more suitable for large scale ice sheet modeling while Elmer/Ice is more suitable for regional modeling. Then PISM is used to simulate velocity field of three major ice shelves of Antarctica, namely Ross, Ronne and Amery, and compares the modeled result with true velocity field from remote sensing. Then Elmer/Ice is used to simulate simple 2D glacier model, Tete Rousse glacier and Dome A of Antarctic Ice Sheet. And the thesis focuses on discussing the influence of input parameters and boundary conditions to the modeled result.