Ice-ocean interactions

Over the past decades, many glaciers along the coast of Greenland have been retreating and accelerating, sometimes dramatically. The retreat of these glaciers is initiated by the presence of warm and salty subsurface Atlantic Water (AW) in the fjords. Similarly in Antarctica, some sectors such as the Amundsen sea embayment are experiencing dramatic grounding line retreat and ice flow acceleration. These changes have been linked to the inflow of warm Circumpolar Deep Water (CPDW) onto the continental shelf. Improving our understanding of the physics of  ice-ocean interactions and how to include them in numerical models is therefore critical in order to improve our ability to project the dynamics of the ice sheets. Our current projects include the coupling of ISSM to the MITgcm, and the development of simple parameterizations based on plume theory and box models (PICOP).

Selected publications

• T. Pelle, M. Morlighem and J.H. Bondzio, Brief communication: PICOP, a new ocean melt parameterization under ice shelves combining PICO and a plume model, The Cryosphere 13 (2019) 1043-49 [link]
• M. Morlighem, M. Wood, H. Seroussi, Y. Choi and E. Rignot, Modeling the response of northwest Greenland to enhanced ocean thermal forcing and subglacial discharge, The Cryosphere 13 (2019) 723-34 [link]
• J.H. Bondzio, M. Morlighem, H. Seroussi, M.H. Wood and J. Mouginot, Control of Ocean Temperature on Jakobshavn Isbrae’s Present and Future Mass Loss, Geophysical Research Letters 45 (2018) 12,912-12,921 [link]
• M. Wood, E. Rignot, I. Fenty, D. Menemenlis, R. Millan, M. Morlighem, J. Mouginot and H. Seroussi, Ocean-Induced Melt Triggers Glacier Retreat in Northwest Greenland, Geophysical Research Letters (2018) [link]
• J. Willis, D. Carroll, I. Fenty, G. Kohli, A. Khazendar, M. Rutherford, N. Trenholm and M. Morlighem, Ocean-Ice Interactions in Inglefield Gulf: Early Results from NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland Mission, Oceanography 31 (2018) [link]
• E. Rignot, Y. Xu, D. Menemenlis, J. Mouginot, B. Scheuchl, X. Li, M. Morlighem, H. Seroussi, M. van den Broeke, I. Fenty, C. Cai, L. An and B. de Fleurian, Modeling of ocean-induced ice melt rates of five west Greenland glaciers over the past two decades, Geophysical Research Letters 43 (2016) 6374-82 [link]
• H. Seroussi, Y. Nakayama, E. Larour, D. Menemenlis, M. Morlighem, E. Rignot and A. Khazendar, Continued retreat of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica, controlled by bed topography and ocean circulation, Geophysical Research Letters 44 (2017) 6191-99 [link]
• H. Seroussi, M. Morlighem, E. Rignot, J. Mouginot, E. Larour, M. Schodlok and A. Khazendar, Sensitivity of the dynamics of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica, to climate forcing for the next 50 years, The Cryosphere 8 (2014) 1699-710 [link]