G - I
type: Concept

IPY-AP
type: Concept
definition: Short Title: IPY-AP Proposal URL: http://classic.ipy.org/development/eoi/proposal-details.php?id=107 Air temperatures in the Antarctic Peninsula have risen 6 times faster than the global average in recent decades, triggering glaciological and ecological events unique in the history of this region in the last 1,000 years. In particular, this warming was responsible for the collapse of Larsen A ice shelf in 1995 and Larsen B in 2002. Further south, Larsen C has thinned and continued warming could lead to its breakup within the next decade. To date, access to the most active Peninsula regions has been limited, and little baseline glaciological data exist. As a result, large uncertainties remain in the determination of the mass balance of this region. Studies based on remote sensing and available in situ data show that a complex interaction is underway, involving enhanced precipitation at high elevation, enhanced melting at low elevation, sea ice retreat, enhanced surface and basal melting of land and shelf ice; glacier and ice shelf fracturing; melt percolation; seasonal changes in ice flow; and rapid glacial acceleration in the aftermath of ice shelf break-up. As the Larsen A and B ice shelves disintegrated they uncovered a glacial history preserved on the sea-floor indicating the current retreats are rare to unprecedented in the Holocene. This proposal represents a combination of interests from GLABENAP, TRAPIS, APICS, and APY; these four activities sought to study ice- and climate-related changes at 3 different latitudes, and therefore 3 different stages of ice response to climate change. GLABENAP aims to investigate glacier response in the northernmost areas of the Peninsula, in the aftermath of the transition from continental Antarctic conditions to sub-polar Cordilleran styles of glaciation; APICS and TRAPIS aim to study the rapid changes where ice shelf retreat and glacier acceleration are underway at present; and APY has an interest in the precursors to this ch…
in scheme: projects