Ocean-driven heating of Europa’s icy shell at low latitudes

Soderlund, K. M.; Schmidt, B. E.; Wicht, Johannes; Blankenship, D. D.

doi:10.1038/ngeo2021

Cited by 120 publications

(173 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The results presented here may also be of relevance to other planetary bodies, such as Europa, which are believed to have an ocean covered by a thick ice sheet (e.g., Soderlund et al 2014, and references therein). The arguments in section 2 provide a recipe that can be applied to predict the flow characteristics and mean state of any thermally driven ocean, given estimates for the geothermal heat flux and the spatial structure of heat escape through the ice sheet.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

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The Turbulent Circulation of a Snowball Earth Ocean

Jansen

2016

Journal of Physical Oceanography

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Theoretical arguments are developed to derive general properties of the ocean circulation in a ''snowball'' world, and the predictions are confirmed in a series of idealized numerical simulations. As suggested previously, a turbulent flow is driven by geothermal heating at the seafloor, which is balanced by a similar heat loss through the ice sheet above. It is argued that the expected horizontal inhomogeneities in these heat fluxes are sufficient to generate baroclinic instability, which drives geostrophic turbulence. Turbulent eddies then transport heat upward and poleward along isolines of constant density, thereby maintaining a statically stable stratification, contrary to previous findings from numerical models that do not adequately resolve the geostrophic turbulence. The kinetic energy of the turbulent flow is expected to be controlled by a balance between the potential energy input by the diabatic forcing and frictional dissipation in the bottom boundary layer. The resulting characteristic flow speed is estimated to be on the order of 1 cm s 21 , which is in agreement with previous numerical simulations. Eddy diffusivities are estimated to be on the order of 100 m 2 s 21 , which is smaller than in the present-day ocean but probably within one order of magnitude. Because of the weak forcing, the resulting gradients of temperature and salinity would be much smaller than in the present-day ocean, with global-scale potential temperature variations on the order of 0.1 K, again in agreement with previous numerical simulations. The presented theoretical arguments may also be relevant to other planetary bodies with an ice-covered ocean.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…importance of meridional inhomogeneity in the top and bottom boundary conditions, which can lead to baroclinic dynamics that differ fundamentally from the convective solutions presented by Soderlund et al (2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

The Turbulent Circulation of a Snowball Earth Ocean

Jansen

2016

Journal of Physical Oceanography

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“…It provides a refuge for ice algae, a key primary producer in the polar oceans, along with other microfauna and macrofauna in its lower layers (Loose et al, 2011;Vancoppenolle et al, 2013). Understanding how these organisms persist within the ice can help elucidate their survival mechanisms and has potential astrobiological application to putative ice-ocean interfaces elsewhere in the solar system (Greeley et al, 1998;Soderlund et al, 2013;Thomas & Dieckmann, 2009;Wettlaufer, 2009). Compared to freshwater ice, sea ice is dynamic and complex, due primarily to the inherent impurities of seawater.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiphase Reactive Transport and Platelet Ice Accretion in the Sea Ice of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica

2018

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Sea ice seasonally to interannually forms a thermal, chemical, and physical boundary between the atmosphere and hydrosphere over tens of millions of square kilometers of ocean. Its presence affects both local and global climate and ocean dynamics, ice shelf processes, and biological communities. Accurate incorporation of sea ice growth and decay, and its associated thermal and physiochemical processes, is underrepresented in large‐scale models due to the complex physics that dictate oceanic ice formation and evolution. Two phenomena complicate sea ice simulation, particularly in the Antarctic: the multiphase physics of reactive transport brought about by the inhomogeneous solidification of seawater, and the buoyancy driven accretion of platelet ice formed by supercooled ice shelf water onto the basal surface of the overlying ice. Here a one‐dimensional finite difference model capable of simulating both processes is developed and tested against ice core data. Temperature, salinity, liquid fraction, fluid velocity, total salt content, and ice structure are computed during model runs. The model results agree well with empirical observations and simulations highlight the effect platelet ice accretion has on overall ice thickness and characteristics. Results from sensitivity studies emphasize the need to further constrain sea ice microstructure and the associated physics, particularly permeability‐porosity relationships, if a complete model of sea ice evolution is to be obtained. Additionally, implications for terrestrial ice shelves and icy moons in the solar system are discussed.

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“…By comparing the heat flux estimates from a given planetary core, it should then be possible to infer whether coherent columns will stably exist in a given geophysical system (e.g. Soderlund et al 2014). argue that boundary layer physics controls rotating convective heat transfer in water.…”

Section: Rotating Convectionmentioning

confidence: 99%