International workshop on understanding the responses of Greenland’s marine-terminating glaciers to oceanic and atmospheric forcing, 2013

• Main Authors: Heimbach, Patrick, Straneo, Fiammetta, Sergienko, Olga, Hamilton, Gordon
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2019
• Subjects: Greenland; Ice Sheet; Ocean; glacier; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.18739/a2zp3w090; https://arcticdata.io/catalog/#view/doi:10.18739/A2ZP3W090

A United States Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) sponsored international workshop was convened in June 2013 to discuss the problem of “Understanding the Response of Greenland’s Marine-Terminating Glaciers to Oceanic and Atmospheric Forcing” and the challenges to improving observations, process understanding, and modeling. The rationale for holding the workshop derives from observations over the last decade of increased mass loss from the margins of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS). The widespread, regionally synchronous acceleration, and thinning of some of its major marine-terminating outlet glaciers point to a common climatic driver, consistent with the observed warming of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre and near-surface atmospheric warming. Detailed process understanding, however, is currently lacking. This hampers assessment of the impact of increased freshwater flux from the GrIS, not only on regional and global sea level, but also on the North Atlantic circulation and its effect on climate over the Atlantic sector. Specific meeting goals were: 1. Advancing the science, through improved communication, coordination, and collaboration between the diverse communities; 2. Establishment of the foundation for multidisciplinary efforts that will lead to deeper understanding of physical processes, better representation of these processes in climate models, and, consequently, more reliable projections of the Greenland Ice Sheet contribution to sea level; 3. Training and network building across disciplines for scientists at all career levels, with specific focus on advanced graduate students and early career scientists. 4. Identification of synergies of national and international projects; 5. A document describing a prioritized set of recommendations to advance this urgent and complex interdisciplinary problem.