Université Grenoble Alpes ‐ Elmer Ice

Model description

Elmer/Ice (view home page of the code in www.elmerfem.org ) is a full-Stokes, finite element, ice sheet/ice flow model. It is an add-on package to Elmer. This model, is a multi-physics FEM suite mainly developed by CSC-IT Center for Science Ltd., Espoo, Finland. Initially started by CSC, IGE, and ILTS, currently, multiple institutions and individuals contribute to the development of Elmer/Ice. There is a 2D version for the ice sheet description, called Elmer/Ice-sheet model, applicable to large ice sheets on Earth (both land-terminating and marine ice sheets). The incorporation of the calving model is actively in development.

Calving Implementation

We track the calving position using a Levelset (LS) function. This function is defined as the signed distance to the front. Being LS=0 at the calving front, negative in the ice domain, and the rest as positive. Its definition allows us to set only a portion of the numerical domain as active (ice) and the rest as passive. The front moves according to the difference between the ice velocity and the flux through the border. This flux corresponds to the calving flux. There are already some empirical calving laws implemented, and a physically justified implementation of calving laws is under development.

Claving capability checks