Christopher Little
The melting of ice shelves from beneath (basal melting) constitutes a loss of ice from the cryosphere and a source of freshwater to the ocean; it also influences ice sheet dynamics. My overarching research goal is to illuminate key oceanographic constraints on the location and rate of basal melting. To date, I have used idealized numerical models to study the influence of ice shelf shape and bathymetry. These idealized simulations have also been used to examine sensitivity to changes in model formulation and parameterizations, improving the prospects for realistic, coupled models of ocean-ice shelf interaction.