Icebergs are melting faster than current climate models describe as climate change progresses. A study by mathematicians at the University of Sydney proposes a new climate model to represent how quickly icebergs are melting accurately. They published their results in Physical Review Fluids.
Phys.org reported that these new models show how icebergs melt has implications for oceanographers and climate scientists. According to study lead author Eric Hester, their model provides a dial that can tune to better capture climate change's reality affecting the melting icebergs.
Current models assume that icebergs melt uniformly in ocean currents. These same models are incorporated into the methodology that Intergovernmental Panel is using on Climate Change.
However, the model that Hester and colleagues presented shows that icebergs do not melt uniformly. The speeds of melting icebergs depend on their shape.
Hester, a doctoral student in the School of Mathematics & Statistics, said that about 70% of the freshwater in the world is in the polar ice sheets, but climate change is slowly melting them.
Understanding the process of melting icebergs is crucial because some of the ice loss is direct from the ice sheets, but almost 50% of the icebergs in Greenland and Antarctica melt in the ocean. It would also help better understand how ice melt will impact ocean currents.
"Our model shows that icebergs are melting at faster rates than current models assume," He said.
Impact of Ocean Currents In the Melting of Icebergs
According to Hester, ocean currents are the reason why England is not as cold as Canada or Alberta despite being in the same latitudes. The Gulf Stream keeps western Europe milder than it should be because it takes water from the tropics across the Atlantic Ocean.
"That current could shut down if too much freshwater is dumped into the system at once, so it's critical we understand the process of iceberg and ice sheet melt," he said.
That means the location and time of freshwater being released and how the ocean will be affected is partly because of the speed at which icebergs melt. Dr. Geoffrey Vasil from the University of Sydney and co-author of the study said that they would explain how accurate the previous model was and what improvements can be made through their model.
Through an experiment, they confirmed that their models and observations of oceanographers show that the sides of icebergs melt twice the rate of their base. While for moving icebergs, they melt three to four times faster than what previous models predicted.
He said that previous models assume that stationary icebergs do not melt at all, but that s contradictory to what their findings suggest. Stationary icebergs also melt about a millimeter every minute. On the other hand, moving icebergs melt at their base about 30% faster than in old models.
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The Shape of Icebergs Also Affect How They Melt
Their findings also suggest that the shape of an iceberg could affect how they melt. Wide icebergs melt slower, and narrow or small icebergs melt faster. The research proposes that iceberg shape should also be considered in the improved model of iceberg melting.
In order to test their models, they "developed the first realistic small-scale simulations of melting ice in saltwater," Science Daily reported. According to Vasil, these methods can be applied to many other systems like melting frozen saline sea ice or glacier melting.
Although it does not end there, astrobiologists could also use his methods to understand ice moons in Saturn, which is a candidate for finding life in the Solar system.
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