Project Details
Analysis, Thermodynamics and Numerics of Hibler’s Sea-Ice Model
Subject Area
Mathematics
Term
since 2023
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 500072446
Global climate modelling and prediction is essentially dependent on our understanding of the dynamics of the sea-ice covers. Sea ice is a material with a complex mechanical and thermodynamical behaviour and the details of its formation and flow depend on the laminar or turbulent environmental conditions provided by oceanic and atmospheric currents. Moreover, sea ice responds differently to heating, pressure or mechanical forces than for example the (salt-free) glacial ice of ice sheets. The governing equations of large-scale sea-ice dynamics that form the basis of virtually all sea-ice models in climate science were suggested in a seminal paper by W.D. Hibler in 1979. Whereas various numerical and computational approaches to Hibler's model have been developed and implemented, Hibler's model has not been investigated from an analytical perspective until very recently. The aim of this project is to study Hibler's model both from an analysis and a numerical analysis point of view. In particular, we want to investigate and tune Hibler's model for existence, uniqueness and stability of solutions, develop the analysis and numerical analysis of Hibler's model without the standard regularisation terms, prove a rigorous convergence result for recent numerical approximations of Hibler's model, and investigate existence and properties of solutions of specific coupled ocean-atmosphere-sea ice systems.
DFG Programme
Research Units
International Connection
United Kingdom