Models of Thermosyphon Performance, Design, and Influence on Glacier Flow

Alex S Miller, Justin Cole, Colin R. Meyer, Brent Minchew

Sea-level rise threatens coastal communities worldwide, and the acceleration of West Antarctic glaciers is the largest source of uncertainty in sea-level projections. The melt rate at the ice-bed interface is a primary control on the flow speed of fast-moving Antarctic glaciers and ice streams, whose beds are lubricated by meltwater and governed by thermodynamic feedback. Thermosyphons are passive heat-transfer devices, common in Arctic permafrost stabilization, that transport heat vertically through a phase-changing working fluid. By cooling the basal interface, thermosyphons could reduce meltwater production and slow glacial flow by increasing basal drag. Here, we present a research roadmap to evaluate thermosyphons as a tool to remediate climate-driven acceleration by slowing Antarctic glaciers. We develop a thermal model that couples conductive heat transfer through the glacier with thermosyphon performance metrics. We find that thermosyphons can extract basal heat on the same order of magnitude as natural geothermal flux. When we incorporate the thermal model into an ice-sheet model, these perturbations to basal heat flux have the potential to significantly reduce ice-stream velocity. These results suggest thermosyphons warrant further investigation as a potential remediation strategy for stabilizing Antarctic glaciers to minimize the likelihood of rapid rates of sea-level rise.