THETIS: Thetis modeling of the Heterogenous Environment beneath Thwaites Ice Shelf

The project will develop Thetis, an unstructured-mesh, discontinuous Galerkin finite-element ocean model to simulate ocean circulation within the glacier sub-ice-shelf ocean cavity. The unstructured mesh will allow for increased resolution in important regions, such as the grounding zone, and regions with complex coastal geometry, effectively concentrating computational resources where they are needed most. The unstructured mesh will also allow for smooth representations of coastal, seabed, and ice-base geometry, an improvement over the stair-step style boundaries of commonly used structured mesh models.

The model developed for this project will not only be the most detailed model of the Thwaites Glacier ocean cavity, it will also represent a step forward for modeling of ocean-ice interaction in general. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.