Sea level variability from satellite altimetry and field measurements. Statistical data analysis, comparison and signal retrieval

When it comes to climate genies, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is an ugly-looking lamp. Frankly, we donБЂ™t understand the physics of sliding glaciers and ice sheet collapses well enough yet to model the futures of Greenland and Antarctica with confidence. Many things affect the speed and dynamics of that long slide that are hard to measure or see. They include the interplay between the sliding ice and its bed, the heat and lubrication added by meltwater percolating to the bed from the surface, the importance of buttressing ice shelves (which help dam ice up on the land), the ocean water temperature at the ice edge, and others.507 Computer models and field studiesБЂ”like the one Jason and I were conducting in GreenlandБЂ”are in their infancy. Scientists are still discovering new things and debating what may or may not be important. This is why the likelihood of accelerated sea-level rise was kept out of the last IPCC assessment, and may be kept out of the next one as well. Might the ice sheets start slipping faster, with higher sea levels right behind? PerhapsБЂ”but without well-constrained models, we donБЂ™t yet know how likely that is ...»