Ice sheet instabilities and sea level rise

Christine Schøtt Hvidberg, Professor at Is-, Klima- og Geofysik, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen

The large ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica contain more than 65 meters of sea-level equivalent and their mass loss and dynamical response in a warming climate pose a threat to coastal communities around the world. I will discuss how ice cores, satellite and field observations together with physical models are being used to explain how ice deforms and flows across scales—from crystal microphysics to fast glacier streams, and how ice sheet instability processes can trigger threshold-like behavior. The talk will highlight the uncertainties in projections and new opportunities for interdisciplinary approaches involving material physics and feedbacks.