Abstract

A two-layer model of thermohaline ocean circulation under Antarctic ice shelves is described that predicts sub-oceanic ice-shelf melt rates given the basin geometries and ocean temperatures and salinities at the ice edges. The model builds on a series of similar models, using an upper plume layer and adding a balance-flux approach that enables it to be used for evolving land-ocean geometries without the need to pre-define individual basin outlines. Results are compared to Antarctic melt rates derived from satellite data. The model is shown to work for two simulated configurations of West Antarctica very different from modern. In Supporting Information several alternate model aspects are described, and results are tested against numerical solutions of the basic plume differential equations for 1-D flowlines.