An ExcelTM spreadsheet program for reconstructing the surface profile of former mountain glaciers and ice caps

A new Excel™ spreadsheet program is introduced, which calculates the surface profiles of former glaciers using an exact solution of a ‘perfectly plastic’ glacier model. Two versions of the model are presented. The basic model requires only bed topography along a flowline and a yield stress for ice as inputs. The latter can be tuned using ‘target ice elevations’ derived from geomorphological mapping. A more sophisticated form of the model allows the yield stress to vary along the flowline, and incorporates the effect of valley-side drag on the glacier profile.