EGU24-5698, updated on 08 Mar 2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-5698
EGU General Assembly 2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Geoengineering's role in reducing future Antarctic mass loss is unclear

Mira Adhikari1, Daniel Martin2, Tamsin Edwards1, Antony Payne3, James O'Neill4, and Peter Irvine5
Mira Adhikari et al.
  • 1Department of Geography King's College London, London, UK
  • 2Applied Numerical Algorithms Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
  • 3Department of Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
  • 4Centre for Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
  • 5Earth Sciences, University College London, London, UK

Using the BISICLES ice sheet model, we compare the Antarctic ice sheet’s response over the 22nd century in a scenario where idealised large scale, instantaneous geoengineering is implemented in 2100 or 2050 (geoengineering), with scenarios where the climate forcing is held constant in the same year (stabilisation). Results are highly climate model dependent, with larger differences between models than between geoengineering and stabilisation scenarios, but show that geoengineering cannot prevent significant losses from Antarctica over the next two centuries. If implemented in 2050, sea level contributions under geoengineering are lower than under stabilisation scenarios. If implemented in 2100, under high emissions, geoengineering produces higher sea level than stabilisation scenarios, as increased surface mass balance in the warmer stabilisation scenarios offsets some of the dynamic losses. Despite this, dynamic losses appear to accelerate and may eventually negate this initial offset, indicating that beyond 2200, geoengineering could eventually be more effective.

How to cite: Adhikari, M., Martin, D., Edwards, T., Payne, A., O'Neill, J., and Irvine, P.: Geoengineering's role in reducing future Antarctic mass loss is unclear, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-5698, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-5698, 2024.