Buoyant plumes form when glacial ice melts directly into the ocean or when subglacial meltwater is discharged to the ocean at depth. They play a key role in regulating heat transport from the ocean to the ice front, and in exporting glacial meltwater to the open ocean. This review summarises current understanding of the dynamics of these plumes, focussing on theoretical developments and their predictions for submarine melt rates. These predictions are sensitive to ocean temperature, the magnitude and spatial distribution of subglacial discharge, the ambient stratification and, in the case of sub-ice-shelf plumes, the geometry of the ice shelf. However, current understanding relies heavily on parameterisations of melting and entrainment for which there is little in the way of validation. New observational and experimental constraints are needed to elucidate the structure of the plumes and lend greater confidence to the models.

中文翻译：

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冰下羽状物

当冰川冰直接融化到海洋中或当冰下融水从深处排放到海洋时，就会形成浮力羽流。它们在调节从海洋到冰锋的热量传输以及将冰川融水输出到公海方面发挥着关键作用。这篇综述总结了目前对这些羽流动力学的理解，重点是理论发展及其对海底融化速率的预测。这些预测对海洋温度、冰下排放量的大小和空间分布、环境分层以及在冰架下羽流的情况下冰架的几何形状很敏感。然而，目前的理解在很大程度上依赖于熔化和夹带的参数化，对此几乎没有验证方式。