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Behavior of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet as deduced from a coupled GCM/ice‐sheet model
Author(s) -
Verbitsky Mikhail,
Saltzman Barry
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/95gl02935
Subject(s) - ice sheet , ice sheet model , geology , antarctic ice sheet , climatology , ice stream , ice shelf , forcing (mathematics) , instability , cryosphere , sea ice , atmospheric sciences , oceanography , mechanics , physics
While the possible instability of the West Antarctic ice sheet has been widely recognized for some time as a potential source of sea‐level rise in an enhanced greenhouse warming, the stability of the East Antarctic ice sheet has only recently become the subject of such a conjecture. We approach an aspect of this issue using a numerical experiment with an atmospheric general circulation model (GCM) coupled to a 3‐dimensional ice‐sheet model. Response of the ice sheet model to the external forcing generated by an atmospheric GCM due to doubling the CO 2 concentration does not show any appreciable changes in the horizontal extent of the ice sheet due to normal creep and topographic instabilities, suggesting that an Antarctic collapse resulting from these factors is unlikely. The mechanics of basal sliding, non‐isothermal effects, and ice shelves are as yet too poorly understood to make quantitative estimates of possible instabilities due to these processes.