Seminars & Colloquia Calendar

Kenneth M. Golden - University of Utah

Wednesday, March 10, 10:45AM

“Modeling sea ice in a warming climate”

 Abstract: Polar sea ice is a key component of Earth’s climate system. As a material it exhibits complex composite structure on length scales ranging from tenths of millimeters to tens of kilometers. A principal challenge in modeling sea ice and its role in climate is how to use information on small scale structure to find the effective or homogenized properties on larger scales relevant to coarse-grained climate models. In other words, how do you predict macroscopic behavior from microscopic laws? Similar questions arise in statistical mechanics, materials science, and many other areas of science and engineering. In this talk I will give an overview of recent results, inspired by statistical physics and theories of composite materials, on modeling effective behavior in the sea ice system over a broad range of scales. We consider fluid and electromagnetic transport through the brine and polycrystalline microstructure, advection diffusion processes, ocean wave propagation through the ice pack, and the evolution of melt ponds on the surface of Arctic sea ice. We will also discuss how sea ice physical processes influence microbial communities living in the ice and upper ocean. This work is helping to advance how sea ice is represented in climate models, and to improve projections of the fate of Earth’s sea ice packs and the ecosystems they support.