Organizer: Mariama Dryak

Description: Using numerical models to interrogate a specific hypothesis can be a useful way to facilitate learning and better understand a physical system. Students in the Fluid Dynamics course at the University of Maine used a modeling approach to explore whether Thwaites Glacier, Antarctica would become unstable within the next century. The course investigated different aspects of the physical system such as ice shelf melt from a warm water mass at depth (Circumpolar Deep Water), forcings from mass accumulation on the surface, and effects of basal drag and rheology with a finite-element solution for ice flow using the Ice Sheet System Model (ISSM) and a coupled ocean-atmosphere mixing solution using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method. This webinar goes through the basic inner-workings of our models, results, and comparison with in situ observations. Lastly, we present an evaluation of Thwaites’ stability based on our group modeling and reflect on the usefulness of involved collaborative modeling in the classroom.