Data from: Melting dynamics of freely floating ice in calm waters

Predicting floating ice dynamics remains a challenging problem with
implications for Earth's climate. While gigantic icebergs have
garnered worldwide attention, small ice bodies have been overlooked, and
we still lack their mechanistic models. Aided by a novel real-time
tracking, we unravel the transient processes of freely floating ice in
calm waters—including the kinematics, phase transition, and surrounding
fluid dynamics—that govern melting. Combining the convective Stefan
problem and our experimental results, we develop and validate a
theoretical model for the melt rate, identifying ice geometry and
convective regime as key controls. Furthermore, the ice-driven convective
volume flux is found to exceed the meltwater flux by orders of magnitude,
underscoring the ecological relevance of floating ice; it not only
supplies freshwater but also acts as a destabilizing buoyancy source that
redistributes mass macroscopically. Our study provides a foundation for
developing mechanistic parameterizations of icebergs and ice floes melting
in climate models.