[MITgcm-support] Downloading mitgcm

V Lee, Geographical Sciences V.Lee at bristol.ac.uk
Fri Oct 24 13:47:25 EDT 2003


Hello,

I am a Research Assistant (Post-doc) working in Bristol Glaciology 
Centre at University of Bristol. I am interested in using your software
to model circulation within subglacial lakes. Subglacial lakes are 
water bodies found beneath the Antarctic ice sheet and whose sizes vary
from a few kms to 240km long. Lake Vostok is the largest (has a volume 
of ~5200km^3) and most famous. These lakes are only a relatively recent
discovery, since it was thought that water could not remain in liquid 
form in such a hostile climate. It is believed that these lakes have 
been sealed from the atmosphere for at least 100,000 years and that 
biota has developed in these unique environments. Samples of lake water
cannot be taken from the lakes for fever of contaminating the pristine 
environment, so it is left to the modellers to provide information 
about the lakes...

The circulation within the lakes is driven by weak geothermal heating 
from below and melting and freezing at the lake-ice interface. Since 
velocities are expected to be less than 1 mm/s and the lakes are kms 
long rotational effects will be important. Your software seems to be a 
good starting point. Ideally, I would like to replace the rigid lid 
boundary condition with a sloping water-ice interface. If you have any 
comments or advice I would be most grateful! 

Thank you,
Vicky.

----------------------
V Lee, Geographical Sciences
V.Lee at bristol.ac.uk




More information about the MITgcm-support mailing list