The Grounding-zone flux observations at a continental scale: the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AntarcticGZ) project combines glaciology, geophysics, climate and computer science to produce the first continuous grounding zone survey of the present-day Antarctic Ice Sheet.

This high-resolution survey, when compared with earlier grounding zone and other glaciological observations acquired from historical satellite imagery sources (1960s to present), will shed new light into the vulnerability of the world's largest ice sheet due to climate change. Together with knowledge of the primary ice, ocean and atmosphere processes controlling this vulnerability, and the timescales in which they operate, such insight will form an important benchmark in which to more accurately assess Antarctica's current and future contributions to global sea-level rise.

This project benefits from the support of the The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation.

The project team, headed by Principal Investigator Julian Dowdeswell, consists of research scientists located at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, who hold expertise in the fields of glaciology, climate science and earth observation of the polar regions.

Contacts

For media enquiries or further information on the project, please contact Ms. Joanna Carruthers, PA to Principal Investigator Prof. Julian Dowdeswell, in the first instance. Ms. Carruthers can be contacted at: jcc64@cam.ac.uk.

Header image is a composite showing the grounding zone of Thurston Island, West Antarctica, as imaged by Sentinel-2a (Feb 2020; true colour) and ERS-1 (1992; interferometric phase). [Image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel-1a/b data and ESA ERS-1 data, processed by SPRI].