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Welcome to the homepage for icepack! Icepack is a Python library for solving the equations of motion of glacier flow. Our goal is to lower than barrier to entry to using flow models if you're not an expert in numerical simulation, and to produce a set of tools that will be useful to you if you are.

Some features we're especially proud of include:

  • We have solvers for several flow models, from the simplest to the most complex.
  • All the stress balance models are customizable -- changing the friction law is a few lines of code.
  • We've got a state-of-the-art inverse solver using the Gauss-Newton algorithm.

For examples of what icepack is capable of, have a look at the tutorials.

How to use this site

You're just getting started: See the install page for how to get icepack working on your machine. The tutorials will show you how to set up and run simulations and analyze the results.

You're doing real research: The how-to guides on the tutorials page assume you've already got off the ground, and you now want to do larger, more complex simulations and publish the results in peer-reviewed papers. If there are new features you'd like to see included in icepack, see the development page.

Who we are

We're a team of researchers and PhD students, mostly at the University of Washington. If you're interested in using icepack and need some help getting started, we'd love to hear from you! If you already find icepack useful and want to get involved in development, we'll take all the help we can get! Please see the contact page for how to get in touch.

Thanks

Several people and organizations have made this project possible. We're grateful to the National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the University of Washington eScience Institute for their generous financial support. The Juneau Icefield Research Program has provided wonderful opportunities for field work. Jeremy Stock designed our logo. This webpage is powered by the static site generator Nikola.