ISCLIM
Polar Ice sheets in the climate system
Project Outline
Assessing the future of the polar ice sheets and their impact on climate and sea levels.
Project lead:
Gaël DURAND (CNRS – IGE)
Co-leads:
Sylvie CHARBIT (LSCE-IPSL)
Christophe DUMAS (LSCE-IPSL)
The ISCLIM project aims to study the evolution of the polar ice sheets and their interactions with the climate system. In particular, it aims to better constrain projections of the contribution of the polar ice sheets to sea level rise and the effects on other components of the climate system.
PC9 ISCLIM will establish a hierarchy of numerical approaches to improve the assessment of the impacts and feedbacks of the ice sheets on the climate system through four actions:
1. Development of ice-sheet models capable of reproducing as closely as possible currently observed changes and producing projections on different time scales (over 100 years or simulating major quaternary deglaciations and rapid events).
2. Improve the description of ocean circulation in subglacial cavities and fjords, and its interactions with outflowing glaciers.
3. Improve the description of atmospheric and surface processes and their relationship to the evolution of the physical properties of snow cover and surface elevation.
4. To represent the feedbacks of ice sheets with the ocean and atmosphere using approaches of varying complexity, ranging from parameterisation to explicit coupling of an ice sheet model, whatever the resolution used in Earth system models.
Keywords: ice sheets , Antarctica, Greenland, numerical modelling, Earth system
Tasks
Our Research
Developthe polar ice sheet models of tomorrow
Refine the description of the processes impacting the polar ice sheets from seasonal time scales (e.g. calving) to multimillennial time scales (e.g. isostasy).
Model sheet-ocean interfaces
Improve estimates of melting under ice shelves and on vertical ice faces at the bottom of fjords at low resolution, integrating the effect of ice sheets into the global ocean freshwater cycle.
Model sheet-atmosphere interfaces
Improve the representation of the atmosphere and exchanges with the surface at high latitudes, and develop coupling with a snow model on the polar ice sheets in order to simulate a surface mass balance in better agreement with observations.
Anticipate changes in the polar ice sheets and feedback from the climate system
Refine decadal to multi-millennial projections of sea-level rise, taking into account the instability mechanisms of the polar ice sheets , and to assess the impact on oceanic and atmospheric circulation.
The aim of PC9 ISCLIM is to include the polar ice sheets in numerical representations of the Earth system, the last component currently unrepresented but identified as affecting both atmospheric and oceanic circulation. This inclusion will advance our knowledge of the modelling of polar ice sheet dynamics, refine mass balance projections for the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets and their contribution to sea level, and improve our understanding and ability to anticipate the interactions of the ice sheets with the other components of the climate system.
ISCLIM will improve our knowledge of the impact of the polar ice sheets on the climate system and its feedbacks with the ocean and atmosphere, enabling us to refine projections of sea level rise from the decade to the millennium.
30 researchers involved.
The consortium
CEA, CNRS, Météo-France, UGA
- Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques (CNRM)
- Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE)
- Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace (IPSL) including LOCEAN, LSCE
Publications
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