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SCAR/IASC Expert Group on Ice Sheet Mass Balance and Sea Level: ISMASS
- ISMASS 2012 Workshop, Portland, Oregon, 14 July 2012
- ISMASS Workshops, Reports and Terms of Reference
The importance of estimating ice sheet mass balance
The mass balance of a glacier or ice sheet is the net balance between the mass gained by snow deposition, and the loss of mass by melting (either at the glacier surface or under the floating ice shelves or ice tongues) and calving (production of icebergs). A negative mass balance means that a glacier is losing mass, and, for grounded glaciers and ice sheets, this mass loss directly contributes to sea level rise (the melting of floating ice shelves and ice tongues does not contribute to sea level rise, because of the lower density of ice as compared to water, which determines the floating portion of the ice). This is one of the reasons why it is important, under a warming climate, to have accurate estimates of the mass balance of glaciers and ice sheets.
How is the mass balance estimated?
Past mass balance rates can be estimated from ice core data, although the proper dating of the samples is challenging. For the deeper parts of the ice core (representing the older data), the dating requires modelling the ice sheet dynamics.
For the large ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, the estimate of present mass balance is only possible using remote sensing (satellite or airborne) techniques, though these need to be calibrated and validated against measurements done on the glacier surface.
For predicting future mass balance, under different scenarios of climate change, it is necessary to use models of the dynamics and thermal regime of the glaciers and ice sheets. These models have to be integrated with climate models (that provide the information on accumulation and melting at the glacier surface) and oceanic models (which provide the interaction between the ice sheets and the ocean).
ISMASS Expert Group
The Expert Group on Ice Sheet Mass Balance and Sea Level (ISMASS) is co-sponsored by SCAR and the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC). The goals of ISMASS are to promote the research on the estimation of the mass balance of ice sheets and its contribution to sea level, to facilitate the coordination among the different international efforts focused on this field of research, to propose directions for future research in this area, to integrate the observations and modelling efforts, as well as the distribution and archiving of the corresponding data, to attract a new generation of scientists into this field of research, and to contribute to the diffusion, to society and policy makers, of the current scientific knowledge and the main achievements in this field of science. Further details on the goals of ISMASS can be found in the new Terms of Reference.
Current ISMASS contacts are: Frank Pattyn (fpattyn@ulb.ac.be), Francisco Navarro (francisco.navarro@upm.es) and Edward Hanna (E.Hanna@sheffield.ac.uk).
ISMASS Workshops, Reports and Terms of Reference
ISMASS 2012 Workshop, Portland, Oregon, 14 July 2012
The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) are organising a kick-off workshop of the renewed Ice-Sheet Mass Balance and Sea Level (ISMASS) expert group.
Where: Hilton Portland, Portland, Oregon, USA - a venue of the SCAR Open Science Conference
When: 14 July 2012, from 08:00 to 17:00
Who should plan to attend: Anyone interested!
The ISMASS 2012 Workshop is free to all registered participants. For planning purposes, please register by 31 May.
For further details and to register, please visit the ISMASS Workshop website.
Terms of Reference, August 2011
Ice Sheet Mass Balance and Sea Level: A Science Plan (SCAR Report 38)
Presented as an ISMASS contribution at the International Glaciological Society Conference in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, July 27-31, 2009
Ice Sheet Modelling Summer School - 3 - 14 August 2009, Portland, Oregon, USA
Workshop on improving Ice Sheet Models, 5-7 July 2008, St Petersburg, Russia
A Need for More Realistic Ice-sheet Models - an ISMASS report, 2007 (SCAR Report 30)
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