Speaker: Professor Eli Tziperman

Prof. Eli Tziperman will lead the discussion on the Millan et al 2018 paper "Vulnerability of Southeast Greenland Glaciers to Warm Atlantic Water From Operation IceBridge and Ocean Melting Greenland Data" (Paper).

Here's his description of the paper and its relevance: One of the most significant ocean effects in global warming is enhanced melting of ice shelves and ice streams at their grounding line by warmer ocean water, leading to ice stream/ glacier acceleration. Glaciers in South-East Greenland contribute significantly to recent ice loss, but they retreat/advance in a complex, non-uniform pattern.

The Millan et al 2018 paper ("Vulnerability of Southeast Greenland Glaciers to Warm Atlantic Water From Operation IceBridge and Ocean Melting Greenland Data") calculates a new bed topography for SE Greenland glaciers using new gravity measurements, and uses ocean CTD temperature data to deduce that the complex glacier retreat/ advance pattern is explained by three major factors:

the presence of warm Atlantic Water (AW) in the fjords
the existence of retrograde bed, and
stabilization by sills preventing AW inflow, or by prograde slopes.