Geophysical Fluid Dynamics in Ice Shelf Cavities

Among Peter Rhines's early work are important contributions to our understanding of the dynamics of a stratified ocean bounded by sloping topography, including the description of the dynamics of topographic Rossby waves. Similar dynamics arise within ice-shelf cavities, where both the ice-ocean boundary and the bathymetry give rise to topographic vorticity gradients. These dynamics figure prominently in the circulation and melting and freezing patterns within ice-shelf cavities, which in turn are important for regulating the loss of mass from the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets and related sea-level rise. This talk will discuss the dynamics of ice-shelf cavities and on-going work to model the interactions between the ocean and ice-shelves, with particular emphasis on those aspects of the dynamics that are directly related to seminal work by Peter Rhines.