West Antarctic glaciers in the climate system

Titre : West Antarctic glaciers in the climate system

Laboratoire de rattachement : LGGE

Encadrant : Nicolas Jourdain

Téléphone : 0476824272

Co-Encadrant : Gaël Durand

Mots clés : Modeling ; Ocean and atmosphere dynamics

Contexte et objectifs de la mission de stage :
The largest uncertainty on the 21st century sea level rise is related to the Antarctic ice sheet, where dynamical ice discharge is projected to increase, being only partly compensated by the effect of increased snowfall. A very large part of the increased discharge will likely occur through Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers that have an ice-shelf termination in the Amundsen Sea. These glaciers may already be engaged in a dynamical instability triggered by increased melt beneath their ice shelves. The later results from the Amundsen Sea warming that is likely related to wind changes at both regional and global scales. Several significant feedbacks between atmosphere, ocean and glacier dynamics have been suggested in the literature.

To reduce the uncertainty on the West Antarctic contribution to sea level rise, there is a need to improve dynamical modeling systems, in particular at the glacier/ocean and glacier/atmosphere interfaces. The aim of the internship is to quantify the oceanic and/or atmospheric feedbacks related to changes in the geometry of West Antarctic glaciers. The dynamical models developed at LGGE will be used along this internship.