Open AccessThermal stability properties of a model of glacier flow
Author(s) -
Fowler A. C.,
Larson D. A.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
geophysical journal of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.302
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1365-246X
pISSN - 0016-8009
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-246x.1980.tb02625.x
Subject(s) - glacier , advection , geology , flow (mathematics) , stability (learning theory) , steady state (chemistry) , linear stability , mechanics , surface (topology) , free surface , heat flow , thermal , thermodynamics , mathematics , geometry , physics , geomorphology , chemistry , computer science , instability , machine learning
Summary We consider the linear stability of the steady state temperature profile in cold regions of valley glaciers. The model we use incorporates surface accumulation and ablation, free surface and melting boundaries and a non‐linear temperature‐dependent viscous flow law. The main simplifying assumption is that the Graetz number is small, in other words the glacier behaves essentially like a slab: although this is not a reasonable assumption, it enables a fully analytic solution of the problem to be obtained, and may point the way for future analyses which include advective heat transport. We find that the steady state is ‘effectively’ stable.