Event Dates
2015-08-16 - 2015-08-21
Location
Cambridge, United Kingdom

The International Glaciological Society (IGS) will hold an International Symposium on 'Contemporary ice-sheet dynamics: ocean interaction, meltwater and non-linear effects' in 2015, in Cambridge, UK, from 16–21 August 2015.

The meeting will bring together researchers from the oceanographic and glaciological communities who use observational and modeling tools in the study of ice-sheet stability, surface mass balance and its influence on glacier dynamics, ice stream–ice shelf interaction, ice-sheet basal properties, sub-glacial hydrology, tidewater glaciers and ocean interactions, ice shelf mass balance, ice shelf stability, iceberg calving, oceanographic circulation and processes within sub-ice shelf cavities, circulation and ocean heat transfer through fjord systems, continental shelf processes that modify oceanographic conditions and processes beneath ice shelves, and teleconnections that influence shelf seas. By bringing all these communities together, the aim of the meeting is to establish an integrated understanding of this interrelated sequence of processes that ultimately link open- ocean variations with changes in the inland ice sheet, and to provide an overview of the current state of knowledge in this rapidly-moving field of research.

TOPICS
Following on from the discussion above, topic areas will cover the sequence of environments and disciplines from the open ocean to the inland ice sheet, and include observations and modeling of:
1. Transport of ocean heat across the continental shelf break (oceanographic mechanisms that allow heat onto the continental shelf, influence of teleconnections, shelf break ocean dynamics)
2. Continental shelf ocean processes (processes influencing shelf conditions, circulation in proglacial fjords, impacts on the ice shelf cavity and tidewater glacier calving fronts, air-sea exchange, sea-ice formation, coastal polynyas)
3. Sub-ice-shelf processes and environment (ice shelf basal mass balance, ice- ocean boundary layer, sub-ice shelf heat transport)
4. Tidewater glacier and ice-shelf stability (iceberg calving processes, impact of sub-glacial drainage on ice front processes, ice-shelf disintegration, structure of ice shelves)
5. Ice sheet-stream-shelf glaciology (impact of ice shelves on ice streams, grounding line dynamics, upstream propagation of grounding line changes, ice stream dynamics, ice stream basal conditions, sub-ice stream hydrology, ice sheet and ice stream mass balance)
6. Dynamics and stability of ice sheets (evidence of past ice sheet instability from proxies, observed state of the great ice sheets, non-linear dynamical processes)
7. Integrated understanding of the processes linking oceans and ice sheets,and changes therein (external drivers and internal instabilities, interactions between these, model predictions of future behavior and implications thereof, overall effect of ocean and atmosphere on changes in the great ice sheets)

Please note that the abstract submission system is separate from the IGS portal. You will have to register your details if you have not submitted an abstract with us before.

If you have not already done so please go to http://www.igsoc.org/symposia/2015/cambridge/ and register your interest to attend as that will ensure you receive all future communications relating to the symposium.

Please go to at http://www.igsoc.org/symposia/2015/cambridge/ and submit your abstracts.

The second circular is posted on the IGS website. http://www.igsoc.org/symposia/2015/cambridge/

Please note that there is a discrepancy in the printed version of second circular. The correct abstract deadline is 19 April. This has been corrected in in the online version.