Abstract
Periodic boundary waves are sometimes observed on surfaces of large ice bodies such as glaciers and polar ice caps on Mars as well as on the Earth. These boundary waves may be formed by boundary instability between the ice surface and the fluid flowing on it. We propose a mathematical model to describe the evolution of the ice surface by the use of the Navier-Stokes equations, the heat transfer equations of flow and ice, and a heat balance equation at the boundary. Assuming that the temperature above the flow is higher than that below the ice, we perform a linear stability analysis, and obtained the results that the flow-ice boundary becomes unstable in the range of large Reynolds numbers, and the boundary waves migrate upstream in this temperature condition.
