Articles | Volume 16, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4931-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4931-2022
Research article
 | 
14 Dec 2022
Research article |  | 14 Dec 2022

An assessment of basal melt parameterisations for Antarctic ice shelves

Clara Burgard, Nicolas C. Jourdain, Ronja Reese, Adrian Jenkins, and Pierre Mathiot

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Short summary
The ocean-induced melt at the base of the floating ice shelves around Antarctica is one of the largest uncertainty factors in the Antarctic contribution to future sea-level rise. We assess the performance of several existing parameterisations in simulating basal melt rates on a circum-Antarctic scale, using an ocean simulation resolving the cavities below the shelves as our reference. We find that the simple quadratic slope-independent and plume parameterisations yield the best compromise.
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