Ice Melting and Mixing: From the Lab to the Ocean

Les Houches - WE-Heraeus Winter School

14 Feb - 19 Feb 2027

Where:

Ecole de Physique - Les Houches, France

Scientific organizers:

Prof. Dr. Detlef Lohse, University of Twente, Netherlands * Dr. Aimée Slangen, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Netherlands * Dr. Louis-Alexandre Couston, Laboratoire de Physique, UCBL & ENS de Lyon, France

The mass loss of ice stored in glaciers and on the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheet is one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity today, as it drives more than half of the observed sea-level change today and is expected to increasingly contribute as the climate warms. Large scale climate models are currently not capable of simulating these mass losses, partially due to gaps in our understanding of the underlying processes. This discrepancy calls for a concerted effort to refine our models through interdisciplinary research that combines controlled laboratory experiments, direct numerical simulations, climate modeling, and large-scale observational studies.

This workshop aims to bring together experts from various disciplines, including fluid dynamics, climatology, oceanography, glaciology, and climate modeling, to address the following key objectives:

  1. Small-scale controlled experiments and direct numerical simulations: Can we understand the physics of ice melting into salty water from small-scale experiments and direct numerical simulations? Can we identify compact representations (such as scaling laws) of ice melting dynamics?
  2. Large-scale observations and results from climate models: What polar ocean and ice sheet processes do current climate models resolve and do they agree with observations? What are the processes that are not resolved? How are they parameterized and how are the parameterizations constrained by observations?
  3. Bridging Scales: Explore ways to link small-scale physics and fluid dynamics to global climate models with the ultimate aim to improve understanding and modelling on small and on large scales.
  4. Enhancing Model Processes: Identify model and experimental setups suited for testing new parameterizations of ice melting and the climatic consequences, including improvements for large-scale parameterisations.
  5. Fostering Collaboration: Facilitate networking and partnerships between researchers to encourage interdisciplinary approaches to glacier melting and climate research.