# Notes/vanderVeen Aug5

## Crash Course in Glacier Dynamics

Kees van der Veen, University of Kansas August 5, 2009 Portland Summer Modeling School

What's the objective of an ice sheet model?

• Understand evolution of ice sheet given some forcing (global warming, etc.)

Fundamental equations: conservation of xxx

• Mass
• Energy
• Momentum

Conservation of Mass: Continuity Equation

• What comes in (flux, basal freezing if, accumulation if) to some control volume must go out (flux, basal melting if, ablation if).
• Assumption: ice is incompressible, so density is constant. Mass conservation ~ volume conservation
• Assumption: ignore firn layer (100-150m in Antarctica, less in Greenland)

$M \Delta x + H(x)U(x) - H(x + \Delta x) U(x + \Delta x) = \frac{\Delta H}{\Delta t} \Delta x$

$\frac{\Delta H}{\Delta t} = -\frac{H(x + \Delta x)U(x+\Delta x) - H(x)U(x)}{\Delta x} + M$

Shrink timestep & spatial step to infinitessimal to write as differential equation

$\frac{\partial H}{\partial t} = -\frac{\partial}{\partial x} HU + M$

Conservation of Momentum: Newton's second law

• $F = ma$, with zero acceleration
• so the sum of all forces must be zero.
• stresses are easier to work with than forces: stress is force per unit area
• Nine stress components: $\sigma_{ij}$
• i: plane perpendicular to axis (x)
• j: direction of stress
• Stress tensor is symmetric, so $\sigma_{ij} = \sigma_{ji}$ and there are really only six distinct stress components
• 3 equations with 6 unknowns

Force balance in z

$F_z = 0$

$\sigma_{zz}(z + \Delta z) \Delta x \Delta y + \sigma_{xz}(z+\Delta z) \Delta z \Delta y + \sigma_{yz}(z + \Delta z) \Delta x \Delta z = \rho g \Delta x \Delta y \Delta z$

$\frac{\partial \sigma_{xz}}{\partial x} + \frac{\partial \sigma_{yz}}{\partial y} + \frac{\partial \sigma_{zz}}{\partial z} = -\rho g$

Force balance in x

$\frac{\partial \sigma_{xx}}{\partial x} + \frac{\partial \sigma_{xy}}{\partial y} + \frac{\partial \sigma_{xz}}{\partial z} = 0$

Force balance in y

(we won't concern ourselves with the transverse y direction, which also means we can eliminate the y-derivative terms in the z and x equations above)

Newton's First Law: action / reaction

• What drives glacier flow? Gravity is the "action".
• What is the response? Resistance to flow is the "reaction".

## Exercise in deriving force balance in the horizontal

Integrate the force balance equation in x over the depth of the ice column to eventually derive an expression relating driving stress, basal drag, and longitudinal stress gradients.

$\int_b^h \frac{\partial \sigma_{xx}}{\partial x} + \frac{\partial \sigma_{xy}}{\partial y} + \frac{\partial \sigma_{xz}}{\partial z} dz = \int_b^h 0 dz$
The integral in $\sigma_{xz}$ is easy because it is just the difference of the stress at the surface and the bed -- the two dz's cancel. But we have to use the Leibniz rule to work with the $\sigma_{xx}$ term, because the limits of integration h and b are really h(z) and b(z) - they depend on z, which we're trying to integrate over. Shucks.
Using the Leibniz Rule, $\int_b^h \frac{\partial \sigma_{xx}}{\partial x} dz = \frac{\partial}{\partial x} \int_b^h \sigma_{xx} dz - \sigma_{xx}(s)\frac{\partial s}{\partial x} + \sigma_{xx}(b)\frac{\partial b}{\partial x}$.
$\frac{\partial}{\partial x} \int_b^h \sigma_{xx} dz - \sigma_{xx}(s)\frac{\partial s}{\partial x} + \sigma_{xx}(b)\frac{\partial b}{\partial x} + \sigma_{xz}(s) - \sigma_{xz}(b) = 0$.