Project overview
The potential collapse of the Antarctic Ice Sheet in a future warmer climate and the consequent dramatic rise in sea level would cause flooding of large, densely populated areas. The Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (5th AR IPCC, 2013) identified the Antarctic Ice Sheet as the largest source of uncertainty in predictions of future sea level rise over their 50-200 year time horizon. The observed accelerating thinning (Paolo, Fricker, & Padman, 2015) of many of the ice-shelves surrounding and buttressing the Antarctic Ice Sheet has been directly linked to increased oceanic heat fluxes (ref: Pritchard et al, 2012), and yet the dynamics governing the flow of warm water towards and into the ice shelf cavities are poorly known. By improving the general understanding of these dynamics and the factors controlling the heat flux towards the ice shelf cavities, the outcome of the proposed project will in the end contribute to reduced uncertainties in sea level rise projections. This will improve risk analysis and social planning that will reduce the social and economic impact of sea level rise.
The heat reservoir threatening the ice shelves is located off the continental shelf, in the deep Southern Ocean, where relatively warm water resides below a shallow, cold and fresh surface layer. To reach the ice shelf cavities and induce basal melt, the warm water must get past two topographical barriers: the continental shelf break and the ice shelf front; and a dynamical barrier: conservation of potential vorticity (PV).
We propose a set of experiments to explore the effect of these topographical barriers on the flow of warm water from the deep ocean into the ice shelf cavity.
The experiments are to be carried out in the rotating platform at the Coriolis laboratory in Grenoble, France, where topography (see Appendix 1) representing the Antarctic continental shelf – ice shelf system is to be inserted
The heat reservoir threatening the ice shelves is located off the continental shelf, in the deep Southern Ocean, where relatively warm water resides below a shallow, cold and fresh surface layer. To reach the ice shelf cavities and induce basal melt, the warm water must get past two topographical barriers: the continental shelf break and the ice shelf front; and a dynamical barrier: conservation of potential vorticity (PV).
We propose a set of experiments to explore the effect of these topographical barriers on the flow of warm water from the deep ocean into the ice shelf cavity.
The experiments are to be carried out in the rotating platform at the Coriolis laboratory in Grenoble, France, where topography (see Appendix 1) representing the Antarctic continental shelf – ice shelf system is to be inserted