Safety bands of the West Antarctic ice sheet

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is a major contributor to global sea level rise, with concerns about the possibility of the ice sheet becoming unstable and causing irreversible retreat on decadal to centennial timescales. While the timing of self-sustaining retreat is challenging to estimate, it is largely controlled by the bed and influenced by various factors such as atmospheric and oceanic forcing, ice shelf buttressing and integrity, basal processes, and interactions. Sensitivity experiments demonstrate the potential for stable and unstable grounding-line positions of the WAIS, offering insights into where unstable retreat is expected instead of when, and for what ice sheet margins potential recovery of the ice sheet is possible.

Speaker: Frank Pattyn, ULB

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Room 350/372