Workshop on Ice Sheet/Ocean/Atmosphere Interactions in Greenland

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

Funds are provided in partial support of an international, interdisciplinary Workshop on Ice Sheet/Ocean/Atmosphere Interactions in Greenland. Core funding of the workshop from U.S. CLIVAR has already been secured. The objective of the workshop is to bring together observationalists, modelers and theoreticians from the oceanographic, glaciological, meteorological and climate communities to discuss the challenges and requirements for improving observations, and process understanding and modeling of this problem. The prospective attendees include U.S. scientists, funded by major US agencies (NASA, NSF, NOAA, DoE, ONR), and international experts, who are studying processes in Greenland, adjacent ice caps, similar Arctic environments (especially Alaskan tidewater glaciers), and surrounding seas (especially Nordic Seas and subpolar North Atlantic). The major meeting outcomes are envisioned to be: 1. Advancement of the science, improved coordination, and synergy of national and international projects. 2. Interaction and network building across disciplines for all and especially students and early career scientists. 3. A document describing a prioritized set of recommendations to make progress on this urgent and complex interdisciplinary problem, including a plan for a long-term Greenland observing system. Ice sheet-ocean-atmosphere interactions in Greenland represent a new research frontier that is critical to understanding the ice sheet?s evolution, its mass balance, and contributions to global sea level rise. Recent observed changes in Greenland show that these processes are important in the context of decadal-to-centennial climate variability - time scales relevant to major infrastructure planning and design.