Ice-Ocean-Climate Interactions

Course goals

Content

The cryosphere on both poles represent key elements of System Earth. They drive deep ocean circulation, promote ocean CO2 uptake, cool the earth, store fresh water and attract and sustain an enormous biodiversity. There are profound concerns in society about the resilience of the polar cryosphere to anthropogenic climate changes, and what consequences a decline in the polar cryosphere would have on climate systems worldwide: for ocean circulation, sea level rise, and atmospheric circulation and regional weather. For instance: what will be the consequence for the land-based ice sheet if climate change causes a weaker sea ice season? How sensitive is the ice sheet to ocean temperature change? What are the processes responsible for the migration of ocean frontal systems? Why are the ice shelves such a crucial component of the marine-based ice sheet? In order to improve the projections of future cryosphere elements: ice sheets, ice shelves, sea ice, and the consequences of those changes, we need to better understand the physics of these elements and how they interact with ocean and climate changes. In this course, you will learn the physical basis of cryosphere components, polar oceans and polar climate, and how these systems interact. You do this by investigating modern observations on the cryosphere, perform and assess reconstructions of past behavior of the cryosphere elements, ocean and climate and evaluate the state-of-the-art future projections for cryosphere under various emission scenarios. As final exercise, you will propose where new information is needed, by writing a research proposal.