Division III: Ice sheets

Division Head: Sophie Nowicki
Deputy Head: Ted Scambos

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The world’s great ice sheets, Greenland and Antarctica, are key drivers of future sea level change, and exert a powerful influence on global climate and ocean circulation. Moreover, they contain the most detailed record of recent climate variations in the earth system. The Ice Sheets Division of IACS supports Working Groups, Joint Commissions, and scientific meetings, and aims to further the exchange of ideas, data, and information across IUGG in support of the goals of IACS. We aim to provide forums that lead to a better understanding of ice sheet dynamics, history, and processes.

Modeling and observations of the ice sheets provide critical insights into their mass changes, both past and future. These lead directly to a better understanding of how ice sheets interact with the climate system and predictive skill for sea level. Relevant research topics for this division range from novel glaciological field and satellite observations, to reconciliations of existing observations over the ice sheets or new approaches and parameterizations for ice sheet models. As ice sheets respond and interact with their environmental settings, research topics that focus on ice sheet-climate interactions or ice sheet-solid Earth interactions, for example, are also welcome.

Current topics supported by the Ice Sheets Division at IACS are the Joint IACS-IAPSO Commision on Ice-Ocean Interactions and together with the Glacier Division and Working Group on the delineation of glaciers, ice sheets and ice sheet basins.