Antarctic RINGS to characterize the Antarctic Ice Sheet coastal zone and Antarctic contribution to the global sea-level rise

Regions where the Antarctic Ice Sheet reaches the coast are fundamental to our understanding of the linkages between Antarctica and the global climate system. These coastal regions contain multiple potential tipping points for the Antarctic Ice Sheet in the ongoing 2^oC warming world, which must be better understood to predict future sea-level rise. The Antarctic Ice Sheet constitutes the largest uncertainty source in future sea-level projections, and this uncertainty is mainly rooted in poorly known bed topography under the ice sheet. Bed topography matters the most in the coastal regions as it controls the stability of the ice sheet. Together with an overview of the current multidisciplinary understandings of the Antarctic coastal regions, we present ensemble analysis of published datasets to present data and knowledge gaps, and their regional distribution is discussed in the context of ice-sheet evolution and instability. Finally, we identify outstanding science priorities and discuss protocols of airborne surveys to develop a comprehensive dataset uniformly all-around Antarctica.