Chaotic variability in a model of coupled ice streams
Abstract
Regions of fast-flowing ice in ice sheets, known as ice streams, have been theorized to be able to exhibit build-up/surge oscillatory variability due to thermomechanical coupling at the base of the ice. A simple model of three coupled ice streams is constructed to replicate the spatial configuration of a single ice stream being bisected into two termini. The model is constructed to mimic existing branching ice streams in northern Greenland. This model is shown to exhibit both steady-flow and build-up/surge oscillations. Further, the variability can be chaotic due to the nonlinear coupling of three incommensurate frequencies. This provides a mode of chaotic internal variability for ice sheets that contain these types of ice streams.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2510.12525,
title = {Chaotic variability in a model of coupled ice streams},
author = {Kolja Kypke and Peter Ashwin and Peter Ditlevsen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.12525},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
23 pages, 9 figures