March 2012

A new regional mode in PISM is applied to the Jakobshavn outlet glacier. This mode is best suited for high spatial resolutions (< 1 km) and short timescales (< 1000 a). The first step is the identification of a drainage basin based on the surface gradient. Boundary conditions along the basin outline then partially-isolate the outlet glacier flow from the rest of the ice sheet. The ice dynamics model applied within the basin is the full enthalpy-based, SSA-sliding model. Both slow and fast ice flow are captured, as shown by a comparison to observations.