Future Sea-level Contributions and Stability of the Greenland Ice Sheet

My name is Charlotte, I am a PhD candidate at the Norwegian Research Centre (NORCE) and the Department of Earth Science at UiB. I have a background in boundary layer meteorology, but recently shifted my focus to glaciology. In my PhD project I am modeling the Greenland ice sheet and its interaction with the future climate using the community ice sheet model (CISM).

The Greenland ice sheet is one of the largest contributors to sea-level rise today and is expected to continue losing mass in the future under increasing Arctic warming. Therefore, reducing uncertainties in projections of future sea-level contribution from the Greenland ice sheet is of high importance.

In my research project I investigate the response of the ice sheet to climate change in the short-term and long-term, respectively and determine upper bounds for future rates of sea level contribution. The results will serve as input for planners working on protection plans for cities and infrastructure in coastal areas worldwide. Furthermore, I will use a coupled modeling setup (Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM) coupled with CISM) to constrain climate change trajectories that lead to a future stabilization of the Greenland ice sheet until 2500. My work will contribute to the evaluation of global mitigation targets to avoid a substantial loss of the Greenland ice sheet.