Model output for "Geometric amplification and suppression of ice-shelf basal melt in West Antarctica"

Content description

This data repository contains Úa-MITgcm model output in support of the manuscript 'Geometric amplification and suppression of ice-shelf basal melt in West Antarctica' (De Rydt and Naughten, 2024).

In the paper, results from 4 experiments with the coupled ice-ocean model Úa-MITgcm are presented. The experiments are ref_melt, hi_melt, av_melt and var_melt (see Table 1 in De Rydt and Naughten, 2024). Original MITgcm and Úa output files at the start, middle and end of each experiment are available in the .zip-files with corresponding experiment name. Data for other timestamps are available upon request from the authors.

The structure of each file is as follows:

exp_name.zip/
yyyymm/
  MITgcm/
 bathymetry.shice

data.diagnostics

output.nc

pload.mdjwf

shelfice_topo.bin

Ua/
DataForMIT.mat

NewMeltrate.mat

UaDefaultRun_yyyymm_dd.mat

yyyymm refers to the start month of the coupling timestep. Note that while the initial state of the ice sheet has been optimized to represent its present-day  configuration, the future evolution of the ocean and ice sheet is driven by idealized forcings. The results should not be treated as projections, and the timestamps correspond to model time (in years), not real time.

MITgcm diagnostics (temperature, salinity, velocities and ice-shelf freshwater flux) are stored in output.nc and provided as an average value over the 1-month coupling time interval. The bathymetry.shice, data, data.diagnostics, pload.mdjwf and shelfice_topo.bin files are MITgcm input files for ocean bathymetry, general model parameters, diagnostic model parameters, intial pressure loading under the ice shelf and ice-shelf draft for the corresponding coupling timestep, respectively.

Úa data is provided in UaDefaultRun_yyyymm_dd.mat as a snapshot at the end of the coupling interval (yyyymm_dd). The other files, DataForMIT.mat and NewMeltrate.mat are ice-shelf geometry and MITgcm melt rates at the start of the coupling interval, respectively.

Other resources

The Úa-MITgcm source code and custom Úa-MITgcm configuration files for the experiments are available here and here. Scripts to analyse and plot the data are available here.

References

De Rydt, J. and Naughten, K.: Geometric amplification and suppression of ice-shelf basal melt in West Antarctica, The Cryosphere, 18, 1863–1888, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-1863-2024, 2024.