Support for the IGS/FRIS Symposium on Interactions of Ice Sheets and Glaciers with the Ocean

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This award provides partial support for "Support for the IGS/FRISP Symposium on Interactions of Ice Sheets and Glaciers with the Ocean" to be held in June 2011. The workshop will bring together U.S. and international researchers to discuss the topic of ice/ocean interactions for a one week period and will take place at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Promoting interdisciplinary research on this topic is important because most of the current mass loss from ice sheets is occurring in areas where the ice sheet interacts with the ocean. The hope is to bring together modelers, glaciologists, oceanographers, geologists, and outreach specialists. The two overarching goals of the workshop are to 1) assess the state of knowledge of ice-ocean interactions; and 2) to discuss what is needed for development of reliable, quantitative models of ice sheet evolution. Intellectual Merit: The ocean has a profound influence on the ice sheets and tidewater glaciers and it is becoming increasingly clear that to understand how the ice sheet system will evolve we need to better understand ice-ocean interaction processes. By hosting the forum at an oceanographic institution the hope is to foster strong links between the oceanographic and glaciological communities of researchers.Broader Impact: The topic has broad societal relevance because of the link between loss of land ice and global sea-level rise. Funds provided by this award will support graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and early career scientists. There will also be outreach activities with local California schools to engage the K-12 population in topical scientific research. Understanding ice-ocean interactions is a key component of being able to predict future climate change scenarios.Funds provided by the NSF will only be used to support US scientists, with the specific focus being to provide partial support for early career scientists and outreach specialists. Inclusion of early career scientists and students in the presentation and discussion of a necessarily interdisciplinary, integrated, and truly cutting edge area of Antarctic science will be extremely valuable in training the next generation of Antarctic researchers. Outcome from the meeting will include a symposium volume that is likely to be a very valuable research compendium for future work.