Dr John Church
Program Leader, Sea Level Rise

03 6232 5207
john.church@csiro.au
Dr Ian Allison, Australian Antarctic Division
Project Leader, Sea Level Rise

03 6226 7648
ian.allison@acecrc.org.au
SLR-03: Ice Sheet and Glacier Contributions

Project Overview

Sea level changes over time because of several factors, including changes in the amounts of the earth's water 'locked' up in glaciers and in the major ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland. The balance between accumulation of ice and snow on the ice sheets and the discharge of water to the sea from both iceberg calving and some melting around the ice sheet margins determines the influence of the ice sheets on global sea level.

The principal goal of this project is to deliver more robust estimates of the state of this balance for the Antarctic and Greenland continents during the 20th and 21st centuries. Modelling of the response of these ice sheets to climate change will also deliver estimates of future longer-term contributions to change in sea level from the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets. We will concentrate on the polar ice sheets and draw on international efforts to estimate the additional contributions to changes in sea level from the melting of other glaciers. 

Narrowing the spread of predictions of future global sea-level change is necessary to guide Australian decision-makers in the formulation of policy and management strategies to efficiently prepare for sea level rise. These improved estimates will be essential to Australia, in planning domestic and regional response, and in discussing international impacts of climate change.

Project Objectives

  • To improve estimates of the ice sheet and glacier contributions to sea level rise during the 20th century.
  • To significantly reduce the range of projections of ice sheet and glacier contributions to sea level rise during the 21st century. 
  • To address key uncertainties in the longer-term (centuries) projections of ice sheet and glacier contributions to sea level rise.

National Collaborators

International Collaborators