Ocean-ice shelf interaction: present and future

• Main Author: Hellmer, Hartmut
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctic; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelf; Ice Shelves
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/44311/; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.50655

On the search for the causes of the observed rapid thinning of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the scientific community accepted the ocean to be the prime driver of the mass loss due to its interaction with the fringing ice shelves. Ocean-ice shelf interaction is a circumpolar-phenomenon with different - depending on the environmental setting - impact on the dynamics of the ice shelf and the ice streams draining the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The talk will cover a brief discussion of the process itself, a description of the present situation on the Antarctic continental shelf, a summary of the modelling challenges, and a projection on how the system might evolve in the near future. In addition, the talk touches ongoing measurements underneath the Filchner Ice Shelf to monitor the hydrographic conditions beneath Antarctica's second largest ice shelf.