When
Where
Speaker: Hélène Seroussi, Dartmouth College
Title: Challenges and opportunities in modeling ice sheets
Abstract: Sea level rise is one of the most pressing global challenges of our time, with significant implications for coastal communities and ecosystems. A major driver of sea level is the mass loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, with the evolution of the Antarctic ice sheet remaining the largest source of uncertainty in future sea level projections. The past decades have witnessed an exponential growth of available observations, allowing to accurate observed the ice sheets’ recent evolution and quantify their mass loss. However, these observations are limited to surface and depth-integrated fields with englacial and subglacial processes still poorly understood and causing large uncertainties in ice sheet models.
In this presentation, we will first present the equations and processes governing the flow and dynamics of ice sheets. We will then discuss the main sources of uncertainties in Antarctic ice sheet projections and their relative role, both at continental scale and for individual glaciers. We will then show several examples illustrating how the integration of satellite observations, field data, and high-resolution models allows to better characterize properties and processes happening at the ice base but that cannot be directly observed. We will conclude with remaining challenges in ice modeling and highlight future research directions and opportunities.