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Fate and future climatic role of polar ice sheets

Mass loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets is accelerating as a result of rising global temperatures. Two studies explore how this mass loss will affect sea level and other aspects of the climate in the future.
  1. Hélène Seroussi

    1. Hélène Seroussi is in the Sea Level and Ice Group, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91109, USA.

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Rising sea level is one of the greatest threats posed by climate change. The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have been losing mass at an increasing rate during the past few decades, and are the largest source of uncertainty in projections of future sea level1,2. How much these ice sheets will change over the coming decades to centuries, and how they will affect Earth’s climate, remain largely unknown. Two studies now provide some answers to these questions. Edwards et al.3 revisit estimates of the contribution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet to sea-level rise over the next few centuries. And Golledge et al.4 investigate how polar ice sheets affect other components of the climate system, demonstrating the ice sheets’ crucial role in shaping ocean currents.

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Nature 566, 48-49 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-00330-7

References

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