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Testing Numerical Models of Glacier Flow

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2017

E. D. Waddington
E. D. Waddington*
Affiliation:
Department of Geophysics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1W5, Canada
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Abstract

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The recent glaciological literature contains a number of numerical simulations of ice-mass flow based on the mass conservation equation. Although rather complex ice masses have been modelled, there has been little discussion of the necessary tests for correct response time and amplitudes in the models. The analytical work of J. F. Nye (1960, 1963[a], 1963[b], 1965[a],1965[b]) on the response of a steady-state glacier to perturbations in its mass balance provides an excellent test of model dynamics. Only when properly verified can the numerical model be used to extend knowledge of glacier response to more general cases where analytical solutions are unavailable. The model in this paper is checked against Nye’s calculations of response to a step increase in mass balance. It is then used to extend Nye’s results by finding the time constants for diffusion parameters other than 0 and 1.

Type
Abstracts of Papers Presented at the Symposium but not Published in Full in this volume
Information
Journal of Glaciology , Volume 24 , Issue 90 , 1979 , pp. 508 - 509
Copyright
Copyright © International Glaciological Society 1979

References

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