News
International Project ISMIP6
Model comparison: Experts calculate future ice loss and the extent to which Greenland and the Antarctic will contribute to sea-level rise
Ice-sheet models are an essential tool in making predictions regarding the future of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets. Nevertheless, these models still have a number of weaknesses. In an international model comparison, 14 research groups fed their ice-sheet models the same atmospheric and ocean data, and calculated what additional amounts of sea-level rise Greenland and the Antarctic would contribute by the year 2100.
Greenland
How the ocean is gnawing away at glaciers
The Greenland Ice Sheet is melting faster today than it did only a few years ago. The reason: it’s not just melting on the surface – but underwater, too.
Climate Research
Changes in high-altitude winds over the South Pacific produce long-term effects on the Antarctic
In the past million years, the high-altitude winds of the southern westerly wind belt, which spans nearly half the globe, didn’t behave as uniformly over the Southern Pacific as previously assumed. Instead, they varied cyclically over periods of ca. 21,000 years. A new study has now confirmed close ties between the climate of the mid and high latitudes and that of the tropics in the South Pacific, which has consequences for the carbon budget of the Pacific Southern Ocean and the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.