A prototype implementation of an embedded simulation system for the study of large scale ice sheets

Understanding the impact of global climate change on the world's ecosystem is critical to society at large and represents a significant challenge to researchers in the climate community. One important piece of the climate puzzle is how the dynamics of large-scale ice sheets, such as those covering Greenland and Antarctica, will respond to a warming climate. Relatively recently, glaciologists have identified ice streams, which are corridors of ice that are flowing at a much higher rate than the surrounding ice, as being crucial to the overall dynamics and stability of the entire ice sheet. However, ice stream dynamics, and their impact on the entire ice sheet, are far from understood. It is thus critical to develop simulation models through which these important issues can be studied. In this paper, we present one novel approach to developing such simulation capabilities through the use of embedded simulation.