FUTURE OF ICE ON EARTH

Past projects will appear below on completion. 

Tipping Points in Antarctic Climate Components (TIPACCs)

TiPACCs is a European Horizon 2020 research project investigating the possibility of sudden and large changes in Antarctic Climate Components. Recently, researchers found relatively warm waters below Antarctic ice shelves, indicating that the Antarctic continental shelf seas can tip from a ‘cold’ to a ‘warm’ state. Concurrently, recent research indicates that ice sheets, especially the parts of the ice sheet that rest on a bed below sea level, are prone to an unstable and irreversible retreat.

The change in these two components (cold-to-warm ocean, and stability regime of the Antarctic Ice Sheet) are linked through to the impact that ice shelves can have on the upstream ice sheet and on the ocean below. If irreversible changes occur in the Antarctic components, and so-called tipping points are crossed, the ice sheet will likely quickly retreat, causing a dramatic increase in global mean sea level. Northumbria University is involved in all the work packages of the TiPACCs project.  

Funder: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 820575 

Funds awarded to Northumbria: £1.4M 

Duration: 1 August 2019 to 31 Jan 2024 

Staff involved: Hilmar Gudmundsson, Ronja Reese, Sainan Sun, Adrian Jenkins, Christopher Bull, Jan De Rydt

PIs: Adrian Jenkins and Hilmar Gudmundsson 

Post Doctorial Research Assistants: Emily Hill, Alethea Mountford