How Does the Ocean Melt Antarctic Ice Shelves?

Abstract

The present-day state and future of the Antarctic Ice Sheet depend on the rate at which the ocean melts its fringing ice shelves. Ocean heat must cross many physical and dynamical barriers to melt ice shelves, with the last of these being the ice-ocean boundary layer. This review summarizes the current understanding of ice-ocean boundary-layer dynamics, focusing on recent progress from laboratory experiments, turbulence-resolving numerical simulations, novel observations, and the application to large-scale simulations. The complex interplay between buoyant meltwater and external processes such as current shear leads to the emergence of several melting regimes that we describe, as well as freezing processes. The remaining challenges include developing new parameterizations for large-scale ice-ocean models based on recent advances and understanding the coevolution of melt and basal topography.