Iceberg melt: chapter 3

Air Convection

Arctic icebergs, which are relatively small in mass compared to ice islands or Antactic icebergs, often get caught in the strong prevailing winds of the Labrador Sea/Grand Banks regions. These winds have been estimated to move the icebergs at velocities of 10-30 cm/sec above local water current speeds. In addition, the air convection induced melt rate is significantly higher than that from natural water convection.

It should be noted that velocity differences between the air near the iceberg surface and the wind also produce melt but at a much smaller rate than that for water convection.