Stabilizing the West Antarctic Ice Sheet by surface mass deposition
There is evidence that a self-sustaining ice discharge from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) has started, potentially leading to its disintegration. The associated sea level rise of more than 3m would pose a serious challenge to highly populated areas including metropolises such as Calcutta, Shan...
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ftleibnizopen:oai:oai.leibnizopen.de:okqjqIgBdbrxVwz6MwfD 2023-07-02T03:30:43+02:00 Stabilizing the West Antarctic Ice Sheet by surface mass deposition Feldmann, Johannes Levermann, Anders Mengel, Matthias 2019 application/pdf https://oa.tib.eu/renate/handle/123456789/10357 https://doi.org/10.34657/9393 eng eng Washington, DC [u.a.] : Assoc. CC BY 4.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Science Advances 5 (2019), Nr. 7 Deposition Disintegration Glaciers Sea level Snow Coastal regions Environmental hazards Ice discharges Mass deposition Potential benefits Sea level rise Technical challenges West antarctic ice sheets Ice Antarctica article computer simulation ice sheet 500 article Text 2019 ftleibnizopen https://doi.org/10.34657/9393 2023-06-11T23:13:15Z There is evidence that a self-sustaining ice discharge from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) has started, potentially leading to its disintegration. The associated sea level rise of more than 3m would pose a serious challenge to highly populated areas including metropolises such as Calcutta, Shanghai, New York City, and Tokyo. Here, we show that the WAIS may be stabilized through mass deposition in coastal regions around Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers. In our numerical simulations, a minimum of 7400 Gt of additional snowfall stabilizes the flow if applied over a short period of 10 years onto the region (−2 mm year−1 sea level equivalent). Mass deposition at a lower rate increases the intervention time and the required total amount of snow. We find that the precise conditions of such an operation are crucial, and potential benefits need to be weighed against environmental hazards, future risks, and enormous technical challenges. Copyright © 2019 The Authors, publishedVersion Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Pine Island LeibnizOpen (The Leibniz Association) Antarctic West Antarctic Ice Sheet |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
LeibnizOpen (The Leibniz Association) |
op_collection_id |
ftleibnizopen |
language |
English |
topic |
Deposition Disintegration Glaciers Sea level Snow Coastal regions Environmental hazards Ice discharges Mass deposition Potential benefits Sea level rise Technical challenges West antarctic ice sheets Ice Antarctica article computer simulation ice sheet 500 |
spellingShingle |
Deposition Disintegration Glaciers Sea level Snow Coastal regions Environmental hazards Ice discharges Mass deposition Potential benefits Sea level rise Technical challenges West antarctic ice sheets Ice Antarctica article computer simulation ice sheet 500 Feldmann, Johannes Levermann, Anders Mengel, Matthias Stabilizing the West Antarctic Ice Sheet by surface mass deposition |
topic_facet |
Deposition Disintegration Glaciers Sea level Snow Coastal regions Environmental hazards Ice discharges Mass deposition Potential benefits Sea level rise Technical challenges West antarctic ice sheets Ice Antarctica article computer simulation ice sheet 500 |
description |
There is evidence that a self-sustaining ice discharge from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) has started, potentially leading to its disintegration. The associated sea level rise of more than 3m would pose a serious challenge to highly populated areas including metropolises such as Calcutta, Shanghai, New York City, and Tokyo. Here, we show that the WAIS may be stabilized through mass deposition in coastal regions around Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers. In our numerical simulations, a minimum of 7400 Gt of additional snowfall stabilizes the flow if applied over a short period of 10 years onto the region (−2 mm year−1 sea level equivalent). Mass deposition at a lower rate increases the intervention time and the required total amount of snow. We find that the precise conditions of such an operation are crucial, and potential benefits need to be weighed against environmental hazards, future risks, and enormous technical challenges. Copyright © 2019 The Authors, publishedVersion |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Feldmann, Johannes Levermann, Anders Mengel, Matthias |
author_facet |
Feldmann, Johannes Levermann, Anders Mengel, Matthias |
author_sort |
Feldmann, Johannes |
title |
Stabilizing the West Antarctic Ice Sheet by surface mass deposition |
title_short |
Stabilizing the West Antarctic Ice Sheet by surface mass deposition |
title_full |
Stabilizing the West Antarctic Ice Sheet by surface mass deposition |
title_fullStr |
Stabilizing the West Antarctic Ice Sheet by surface mass deposition |
title_full_unstemmed |
Stabilizing the West Antarctic Ice Sheet by surface mass deposition |
title_sort |
stabilizing the west antarctic ice sheet by surface mass deposition |
publisher |
Washington, DC [u.a.] : Assoc. |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://oa.tib.eu/renate/handle/123456789/10357 https://doi.org/10.34657/9393 |
geographic |
Antarctic West Antarctic Ice Sheet |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic West Antarctic Ice Sheet |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Pine Island |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Pine Island |
op_source |
Science Advances 5 (2019), Nr. 7 |
op_rights |
CC BY 4.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.34657/9393 |
_version_ |
1770275011489169408 |