Lokesh Jain

Active research projects:

“Will ice mélange reduce the sensitivity of the Greenland Ice Sheet to climate warming?”

The Greenland Ice Sheet loses mass through both surface runoff and ice discharge from tidewater glaciers. Many of Greenland’s largest tidewater glaciers have a persistent mixture of icebergs and sea ice (“ice mélange”) at their terminus that can provide resistance to ice flow, but this resistance – and in particular how it varies with climate forcing – is not well understood. In my PhD, I will investigate the processes that govern ice mélange integrity and the impact mélange has on tidewater glaciers. I am using the general circulation model MITgcm to run idealised models of how ocean water flows beneath and through ice mélange. With these simulations, I will study how mélange melting depends on different (a) structural properties (e.g. shape and roughness) and (b) environmental conditions (e.g. ocean temperature and subglacial discharge). I will then simulate mélange melting at two well-studied Greenlandic tidewater glaciers (Helheim and Kangiata Nunata Sermia) to compare my model outputs with oceanographic data. Subsequently, my aim is to parameterise mélange melting to enable its quantification without full-scale ocean modelling. Finally, I will compare mélange melt rate with observations of glacier velocity and terminus position to understand the impact of ice mélange on Greenland tidewater glacier dynamics.