Exploring abrupt changes in Antarctica
| When |
Sep 14, 2026
from 10:45 to 11:45 |
|---|---|
| Where | D8 001 Buisson |
| Contact Name | Louis Couston |
| Attendees |
Ronja Reese |
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The future evolution of the Antarctic ice sheet is the largest source of uncertainty in sea level projections of the IPCC AR6 report. Of particular concern are nonlinear processes: grounding lines – the separation between grounded ice sheet and floating ice shelves - can enter phases of irreversible retreat due to the Marine Ice Sheet Instability and currently “cold” ocean cavities underneath the floating ice shelves could abruptly shift into “warm” states, driving increased melt and ice loss. Here, we investigate these processes to establish (ir)reversibility using numerical models.
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Dr. Ronja Reese is a glaciologist and Assistant Professor at Northumbria University's School of Geography and Natural Sciences, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. Her work focuses on Antarctic ice dynamics, addressing ice-ocean coupling, basal melt parameterisations, ice sheet projections, and instabilities. She completed her PhD in Climate Physics investigating Antarctic ice shelf dynamics and buttressing with the Parallel Ice Sheet Model PISM and the ice flow model Ua at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the University of Potsdam, Germany, in 2018. At present, she is co-leading the Antarctic ice-ocean focus group for the Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project for ISMIP7.