The effect of Antarctic freshwater fluxes on climate
| Quand ? |
Le 11/05/2026, de 10:45 à 11:45 |
|---|---|
| Où ? | Salle Condorcet |
| S'adresser à | Alexis Poncet |
| Participants |
Irena Vaňková |
| Ajouter un événement au calendrier |
vCal
iCal
|
Antarctic freshwater fluxes, such as ice-shelf basal meltwater and subglacial discharge, are difficult to observe; furthermore, until recently they have been only crudely represented in global climate models. I will review recent advances in estimating present-day rates of ice-shelf basal melting, as well as progress in simulating these processes within global climate models. I will then use a global configuration of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM), which includes thermodynamically active ice-shelf cavities, to investigate the feedbacks between Southern Ocean properties and rates of ice-shelf basal melting in a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario. We find that freshening due to basal melt has similar effects to freshening due to declining sea-ice formation. Consequently, the primary effect of including interactive ice-shelf basal melting in global models is that Southern Ocean changes occur at an accelerated rate. Therefore, the omission of interactive ice-shelf basal melting introduces a bias in the timing of projected ocean‐melt‐driven ice loss from Antarctica.