| 008 |
|
150622n^^^^^^^^xx^||||^o^^^^^|||^u^eng^d |
| 245 |
00 |
|a Position Analysis:Polar Ice Sheets and Climate Change |h [electronic resource] |b Global Impacts. |
| 260 |
|
|a [S.l.] : |b Antarctic Climate&Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, |c 2008. |
| 506 |
|
|a Please contact the owning institution for licensing and permissions. It is the user's responsibility to ensure use does not violate any third party rights. |
| 520 |
3 |
|a Change in the mass of
freshwater locked up as ice in
Antarctica and Greenland has
the greatest potential to affect
global sea level in a warming
world.
Modern satellite techniques are
providing increasingly accurate evidence
that mass loss from the polar ice sheets
is contributing to current sea-level rise.
This loss is due to increased discharge of
ice by the large glaciers draining the ice
sheets as well as greater surface melting. The Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC , 2007) estimated the
maximum projected total sea-level rise
from 1980–1999 to 2090–2099, excluding
any accelerated ice discharge from polar
ice sheets, as 0.59 metres. The IPCC AR4
also considered that a further 0.20 m
of sea-level rise might occur over that
interval from dynamic changes to ice
flow increasing discharge from the ice
sheets, and that even larger values could
not be excluded. The processes that
might cause this increase are not fully
understood or adequately included in
present ice sheet models. The extent of
such an increase is probably the largest
unknown in the projections of sea-level
rise over the next century. Since the IPCC AR4, there have been
further observations of increasing ice
flow, highlighting the potential for future
dynamic changes in the ice sheets. In
the absence of well validated models,
a wide range of heuristic projections
for the maximum 21st century sea-level
rise have been advanced. Hansen (2007)
suggested that 5 m of sea-level rise is
not beyond question, although other
researchers (Pfeffer et al. 2008) challenge
this, while Alley et al. (2008) comment
on a worrying lack of agreement among
these projections.
Sea-level rise, with associated effects
such as increased frequency of severe
storm surges, will be one of the greatest
impacts of a warming world on human
societies. Even if global warming
stabilises, the ice sheets will continue
to add to sea level for many centuries
into the future. The melting of ice sheets
also freshens the ocean water, with
consequent impacts on ocean circulation
(and hence global climate), marine
environments, and the rate at which the
ocean absorbs greenhouse gases such as
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The aim of this paper is threefold:
1. T o outline the likely effect of global
warming on the polar ice sheets, and
the potential impacts of ice sheet
change on sea level;
2. T o inform Australian governments
of recent developments in scientific
research into ‘ice sheet mass balance’;
and
3. T o identify issues for consideration in
policy development. |
| 533 |
|
|a Electronic reproduction. |c Florida International University, |d 2015. |f (dpSobek) |n Mode of access: World Wide Web. |n System requirements: Internet connectivity; Web browser software. |
| 710 |
2 |
|a Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre. |
| 852 |
|
|a dpSobek |c Sea Level Rise |
| 856 |
40 |
|u http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI15060961/00001 |y Click here for full text |
| 992 |
04 |
|a http://dpanther.fiu.edu/sobek/content/FI/15/06/09/61/00001/The Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Center_2008_Polar Ice Sheets and Climate C |
