Ice Dynamics and Modelling
Anne Solgaard
Center for Ice and Climate, University of Copenhagen
Abstract:
Understanding the dynamics of ice masses is important when studying both past and future climate: It is essential when studying ice cores from ice sheets and glaciers. These cores represent an excellent climate archive containing information of past changes in e.g. temperature and atmospheric greenhouse gas content. It is also important when investigating changes in global sea level resulting from ice sheets and glaciers responding to a warmer climate.
In this talk a brief introduction to the formation and flow of ice sheets and glaciers is given together with a description of the different types of ice flow models applied when studying the evolution of ice sheets over different time spans. As an example results from an application of a simple ice flow model applied to a North Greenland ice cap is presented.