How fast do tidewater glaciers melt? Quantifying the processes that control boundary layer transport across the ice-ocean interface

• Processes occurring at the ice-ocean interface of marine-terminating glaciers influence the rate of mass loss from the world’s ice sheets, and dictate the depth at which meltwater enters the ocean.
• We hypothesize that submarine melt is controlled by locally-generated turbulence, enhanced by near-boundary currents, and fueled by feedbacks between local melt plumes and interactions with a geometrically-complex ice-ocean interface.
• We are coordinating a collection of underwater acoustic, optical, and in-situ unmanned observations at LeConte Glacier, AK. These are the first geophysical observations of the turbulent boundary layer at a near-vertical ice face.
• The data are studied within the context of the related subsurface terminus morphology and its melt rate.
• We meld methods from glaciology, oceanography, and robotics, combined with high-resolved data and numerical simulations to determine the relevant physics and forcing variables.