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A Strategic Vision for NSF Investments in Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research highlights need for additional study of West Antarctic Ice Sheet

August 11, 2015

A Strategic Vision for NSF Investments in Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research highlights need for additional study of West Antarctic Ice Sheet

Image taken by NASA MODIS

On Tuesday August 11, 2015, the National Research Council (NRC) released a major study on “A Strategic Vision for NSF Investments in Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research”.  It recommends, amongst other items, a major new initiative to investigate the past, present, and future behavior of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet that is losing ice to the ocean and raising sea levels worldwide. With the potential for a further 10-20 feet of sea level increase in coming decades to millennia, the initiative aims to substantially reduce the time scale uncertainty. The Ohio State played a central role in this effort. In 1978, Dr. John Mercer of the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center foresaw the current instability of West Antarctica as a result of climate change. David Bromwich of the Department of Geography served on the NRC Committee, and the first of 16 national public outreach events was held at the Byrd Center in May 2014. For more information, see http://dels.nas.edu/prb/.

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