Salinity in MPAS-Ocean simulation with ocean cavities, using 10 km grid cells. The Ronne-Filchner ice shelf lays above this ocean layer in embayment, with its edge at the black arrows. The fresh-water plume (blue arrow) is due to advection of fresh melt water from below the ice shelf into the open ocean.

Climate Modeling: Ocean Cavities below Ice shelves

The Accelerated Climate Model for Energy (ACME), a new initiative by the U.S. Department of Energy, includes unstructured-mesh ocean, land-ice, and sea-ice components using the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS) framework. The ability to run coupled high-resolution global simulations efficiently on large, high-performance computers is a priority for ACME. (9/2016)

Summary of full paper (pdf)