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Response of the antarctic ice sheet to a climatic warming: A model study
Author(s) -
Oerlemans J.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
journal of climatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.58
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-0088
pISSN - 0196-1748
DOI - 10.1002/joc.3370020102
Subject(s) - ice sheet , ice sheet model , lead (geology) , environmental science , snow , cryosphere , antarctic ice sheet , climatology , atmospheric sciences , ice stream , sea ice , global warming , future sea level , atmosphere (unit) , climate change , geology , oceanography , meteorology , geomorphology , geography
It is generally believed that the increasing CO 2 content of the atmosphere will lead to a substantial climatic warming in the polar regions. In this study the effect of consequent changes in the ice accumulation rate over the Antarctic Ice Sheet is investigated by means of a numerical ice flow model. In the model runs, temperature increases linearly with time during 100 years, and is kept constant afterwards. The results indicate that a climatic warming will probably lead to a sea‐level lowering of some tens of centimetres in the next centuries. This is because for Antarctic conditions the increase in snow accumulation exceeds the increase in melting. This estimate does not take into account the effects of possible surging of parts of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and the response of the Greenland Ice Sheet (which may be quite different).