Abstract:

The numerical modelling of the Antarctic ice sheet is an important way to improve our understanding of the behavior of the ice sheet.By this way,we can find out some physical mechanism implied in the data of the observations,and extrapolate the ice-sheet evolution of some areas where no observations are available.In this paper,we review the history of the numerical ice-sheet model in Antarctica,and discuss the models used to research the Antarctic ice sheet,especially the 3-D models of the whole Antarctic ice-sheet.In detail,some results of the numerical simulation about Antarctic ice sheet are given.The potential thermomechanical source of instability and the handicaps in model studies are identified and discussed.In conclusion,there is much room for improvement of numerical models of the Antarctic ice sheet.