Delaying future sea-level rise by storing water in Antarctica
Even if greenhouse gas emissions were stopped today, sea level would continue to rise for centuries, with the long-term sea-level commitment of a 2 degrees C warmer world significantly exceeding 2 m. In view of the potential implications for coastal populations and ecosystems worldwide, we investiga...
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ftdatacite:10.25932/publishup-41023 2023-05-15T13:39:54+02:00 Delaying future sea-level rise by storing water in Antarctica Frieler, Katja Mengel, Matthias Levermann, Anders 2019 application/pdf application/zip https://dx.doi.org/10.25932/publishup-41023 https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/41023 en eng Universität Potsdam Creative Commons - Namensnennung, 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY article-journal Text ScholarlyArticle 2019 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-41023 2021-11-05T12:55:41Z Even if greenhouse gas emissions were stopped today, sea level would continue to rise for centuries, with the long-term sea-level commitment of a 2 degrees C warmer world significantly exceeding 2 m. In view of the potential implications for coastal populations and ecosystems worldwide, we investigate, from an ice-dynamic perspective, the possibility of delaying sea-level rise by pumping ocean water onto the surface of the Antarctic ice sheet. We find that due to wave propagation ice is discharged much faster back into the ocean than would be expected from a pure advection with surface velocities. The delay time depends strongly on the distance from the coastline at which the additional mass is placed and less strongly on the rate of sea-level rise that is mitigated. A millennium-scale storage of at least 80% of the additional ice requires placing it at a distance of at least 700 km from the coastline. The pumping energy required to elevate the potential energy of ocean water to mitigate the currently observed 3 mmyr(-1) will exceed 7% of the current global primary energy supply. At the same time, the approach offers a comprehensive protection for entire coastlines particularly including regions that cannot be protected by dikes. : Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe, 533 Text Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Antarctic The Antarctic |
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DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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English |
description |
Even if greenhouse gas emissions were stopped today, sea level would continue to rise for centuries, with the long-term sea-level commitment of a 2 degrees C warmer world significantly exceeding 2 m. In view of the potential implications for coastal populations and ecosystems worldwide, we investigate, from an ice-dynamic perspective, the possibility of delaying sea-level rise by pumping ocean water onto the surface of the Antarctic ice sheet. We find that due to wave propagation ice is discharged much faster back into the ocean than would be expected from a pure advection with surface velocities. The delay time depends strongly on the distance from the coastline at which the additional mass is placed and less strongly on the rate of sea-level rise that is mitigated. A millennium-scale storage of at least 80% of the additional ice requires placing it at a distance of at least 700 km from the coastline. The pumping energy required to elevate the potential energy of ocean water to mitigate the currently observed 3 mmyr(-1) will exceed 7% of the current global primary energy supply. At the same time, the approach offers a comprehensive protection for entire coastlines particularly including regions that cannot be protected by dikes. : Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe, 533 |
format |
Text |
author |
Frieler, Katja Mengel, Matthias Levermann, Anders |
spellingShingle |
Frieler, Katja Mengel, Matthias Levermann, Anders Delaying future sea-level rise by storing water in Antarctica |
author_facet |
Frieler, Katja Mengel, Matthias Levermann, Anders |
author_sort |
Frieler, Katja |
title |
Delaying future sea-level rise by storing water in Antarctica |
title_short |
Delaying future sea-level rise by storing water in Antarctica |
title_full |
Delaying future sea-level rise by storing water in Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Delaying future sea-level rise by storing water in Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Delaying future sea-level rise by storing water in Antarctica |
title_sort |
delaying future sea-level rise by storing water in antarctica |
publisher |
Universität Potsdam |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.25932/publishup-41023 https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/41023 |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet |
op_rights |
Creative Commons - Namensnennung, 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-41023 |
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1766125953842413568 |