SCAR EXCOM 2019 Paper 8: Report from AIDSL PPG Popular

SCAR Executive Committee Meeting
30-31 July, Plovdiv, Bulgaria

SCAR EXCOM 2019 Paper 8: Report from AIDSL PPG

Antarctic Ice Dynamics and Sea Level Change (AIDSL) - Draft Science and Implementation Plan

Agenda Item: 5
Person Responsible: Tim Naish

Summary

This is a draft Science and Implementation Plan (SIP) for a new Scientific Research Programme (SRP), provisionally entitled Antarctic Ice Dynamics and Global Sea Level (AIDSL). The SRP addresses one of the highest priority issues facing climate change science - the question of Antarctica’s uncertain contribution to sea level change. It utilises an integrated multidisciplinary approach combining geoscience, physical sciences and biological sciences, of the way in which interactions between the ocean, atmosphere and cryosphere have influenced ice-sheets in the past, are influencing observed ice sheet changes, and how they will contribute to future global sea level rise.

The goal of the SRP is, therefore, to “quantify the Antarctic ice sheet contribution to past and future global sea-level change, from improved understanding of climate, ocean and solid Earth interactions and feedbacks with the ice, so that decision-makers can better anticipate and assess the risk in order to manage and adapt to sea-level rise and evaluate mitigation pathways”.