Articles | Volume 8, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-1275-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-1275-2015
Methods for assessment of models
 | 
04 May 2015
Methods for assessment of models |  | 04 May 2015

A stabilized finite element method for calculating balance velocities in ice sheets

D. Brinkerhoff and J. Johnson

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Status: closed
Status: closed
AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
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Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision
AR by Svenja Lange on behalf of the Authors (03 Nov 2014)  Author's response
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (17 Dec 2014) by Philippe Huybrechts
RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (28 Jan 2015)
ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (Editor review) (13 Feb 2015) by Philippe Huybrechts
AR by Douglas Brinkerhoff on behalf of the Authors (21 Feb 2015)  Author's response
ED: Publish as is (11 Mar 2015) by Philippe Huybrechts
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Short summary
We present a novel numerical method for computing velocity fields in ice sheets using the principle of mass conservation, and show that, for suitable smoothing of flow directions, the velocity converges to a unique solution under grid refinement. We use this method as the forward model in a constrained optimization problem, and use these so-called balance velocities to seamlessly fill in gaps between satellite-based velocity observations.