Carbon dioxide effects research and assessment program. Environmental and societal consequences of a possible CO/sub 2/-induced climate change: volume II, part I. Response of the West Antarctic ice sheet to CO/sub 2/-induced climatic warming

• Main Author: Bentley, C.
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; ANTARCTICA; GLACIERS; ICE; TEMPERATURE EFFECTS; CARBON DIOXIDE; ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS; BOUNDARY CONDITIONS; CLIMATES; ENERGY BALANCE; HEAT TRANSFER; SEA LEVEL; ANTARCTIC REGIONS; CARBON COMPOUNDS; CARBON OXIDES; CHALCOGENIDES; ENERGY TRANSFER; LEVELS; OXIDES; OXYGEN COMPOUNDS; POLAR REGIONS; Antarctic; West Antarctic Ice Sheet; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5305699; https://www.osti.gov/biblio/5305699; https://doi.org/10.2172/5305699

The paper proposes a research plan to deal with the question of what the response of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would be to a rise in global temperatures caused by an anthropogenic CO/sub 2/ buildup in the atmosphere. The plan is designed to answer the following questions: (1) how fast is the ice mass changing now, and why; (2) how will the boundary conditions that affect the ice sheet respond to an atmospheric temperature change and how are those boundary conditions changing now; (3) what will be the response of the ice sheet to changes in boundary conditions; and (4) what can be learned by analogy with what has happened in the past. (ACR)