PREVIOUS EVENTS

Changes in the mass of the polar ice sheets are of considerable importance to society, because they affect global sea levels and oceanic conditions. The advent of satellite observations has revolutionised the way that changes in ice-sheet mass are estimated and, since 1998, there have been more than 30 different surveys. Unfortunately, these studies have variously concluded that the polar ice sheets have added 1.9 millimetre per year to sea level rise; and that the ice sheets have reduced sea levels by 0.2 millimetre per year; and points in between. Now (in 2012) the IMBIE** project has produced the first community assessment of ice sheet losses, and the most accurate measurement to date. Prof Shepherd will describe the findings of the IMBIE** project, which he led from Leeds.

** IMBIE - Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-Comparison Exercise