Investigating the Effect of Internal Waves on Vertical Ice Melting Rates

Abstract Polar ice sheets are losing mass as a result of ocean‐driven melting processes and thus affecting global climate and sea level. Understanding the relevant dynamics and interactions at the ice‐ocean interface is crucial to developing more accurate sea‐level rise projections, but key ocean processes have not yet been considered in detail. In particular, although the potential impact of internal waves on the melting of ice has been hypothesized, no physical validation studies have yet been conducted. This study provides the first direct laboratory measurements of the interaction of internal waves with a pure‐ice interface. The laboratory experiments involve exposing vertical ice slabs to a salt stratification in the presence of an internal wave field generated by a remote wavemaker. Our results indicate that, relative to unforced environments, melting rates can be enhanced by up to in the vicinity of an incident wave beam, with high wave velocities generally equating to higher melting rates. These novel results, which invoke explanation by a hypothetical laminar Stokes boundary layer mechanism, suggest the need for melting parameterizations in ice‐ocean models to be modified to include information about the internal wave climate.