The response of ice sheets to climate variability

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Kate Snow, University of Edinburgh
• Monday 02 October 2017, 14:00-15:00
• British Antarctic Survey, Innovation Centre, Seminar Room 307.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Dr Peter Davis.

If external to BAS, please email the organiser in advance to gain access to the building

Ice loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is a significant contributor to sea-level rise. The ice loss is thought to have been triggered by fluctuations in the delivery of oceanic heat to the base of ice shelves. However, the response of ice sheets to ocean variability remains poorly understood. Applying a novel synchronously coupled ice-ocean model, this study considers the response of an ice sheet to periodic variations in ocean forcing. The results show that the amplitude of oscillations in grounded ice volume grow as a non-linear function of ocean forcing period. This implies that slower oscillations in climatic forcing are disproportionately important to ice sheets. The residence time of ice shelves offers a critical time scale, above (below) which the ice response amplitude is a linear (quadratic) function of ocean forcing period. These results highlight the sensitivity of West Antarctic ice streams to perturbations in heat fluxes occurring at interannual and decadal time scales.

This talk is part of the British Antarctic Survey - Polar Oceans seminar series series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All Talks (aka the CURE list)
• Biology
• British Antarctic Survey
• British Antarctic Survey, Innovation Centre, Seminar Room 307
• Cambridge Environment
• Climate Science Seminars within Cambridge
• Featured lists
• Life Sciences
• Life Sciences
• ME Seminar
• Queens' College Politics Society
• School of Physical Sciences
• Talks related to atmosphere and ocean dynamics and climate science
• my_list
• ob366-ai4er
• other talks

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.