RINGS White Paper on mapping Antarctic ice-sheet margins

The IPCC’s recent Special Report on Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) addresses a rapidly increasing sea‐level contribution from the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The lack of ice thickness data at the margin of the ice sheet (grounding zone) is highlighted as one of the main sources of uncertainty for accurate estimation of Antarctic ice discharge, and adds to discrepancies with other satellite‐based mass change estimates. It is also the location where the bed topography matters the most as it controls the stability of the grounding zone. There is therefore an urgent need to carry out airborne surveys around the entire Antarctic Ice Sheet margin. To fill this major knowledge gap across all the margins of Antarctica for the first time, the White Paper proposes Antarctic RINGS as an ambitious and challenging initiative in a truly international cooperation.