Ocean Circulation and Marine Terminating Glaciers of the Greenland Ice Sheet

• Author / Creator

  Gillard, Laura C.

• Higher latitudes have experienced a significant change in climate and physical processes within recent years. This study focuses on the Greenland Ice Sheet and surrounding ocean waters. It has been shown that relatively warm ocean waters may accelerate melt production of marine terminating glaciers. We explore and classify the pathways for the warmer Atlantic waters that reach the fjords along the coasts of Greenland. Additionally, given that the melt of these glaciers is accelerating, we look at the pathways of the low salinity melt waters from these coastal glaciers and where it is taken up in the surrounding basins. This analysis was carried out using an Arctic and North Hemisphere Atlantic (ANHA) configuration of the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) ocean/sea-ice general circulation model run at both 1/4° and 1/12° resolution. Pathways were determined using the ARIANE Lagrangian float package using both forward and backward trajectories. Warm waters that reached the north and west coast of Greenland tended to be fed by the relatively warm and saline Irminger Current. The south east and the east Greenland coast tended to have warm waters advected to them through Nordic Seas.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Glaciers
  • Melting
  • Ocean
  • Greenland
  • Submarine
  • Circulation

• Graduation date

  Fall 2015

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R32R3P50Q

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.