Date

Call for Researcher Participation
Marine Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project

Preliminary deadline for submissions: 1 March 2008

For further information, please go to:
http://homepages.ulb.ac.be/~fpattyn/mismip/


Researchers are invited to participate in the Marine Ice Sheet Model
Intercomparison Project (MISMIP), which has been launched as part of the
ISMIP series of ice sheet model intercomparison exercises and will
assess the ability of numerical marine ice sheet models to track
grounding line migration, with particular emphasis placed on
representations of the ice sheet-ice shelf transition zone. All marine
ice sheet models that incorporate grounding line migration are invited
to participate.

The last few years have seen significant effort invested by various
research groups in developing numerical marine ice sheet models that are
intended to accurately represent the motion of an ice sheet grounding
line. This effort has seen a variety of models emerge. It is at present
unclear to what extent these models agree with one another or how well
they are able to model real marine ice sheets.

The purpose of the proposed experiments is to address the former
question: how well do the models agree with one another? In addition,
the experiments will also assess how well the utilized numerical schemes
solve the partial differential equations on which they are based. Not
all models used in marine ice sheet simulations deal with the same
equations, but many share basic characteristics. For instance, most
include a representation of the longitudinal stresses required to couple
ice shelves to the ice sheet. Project organizers therefore do not
restrict this intercomparison to a single type of model, but invite a
variety of models to participate.

For further information about MISMIP, including background papers, key
project questions, and experiment parameters, please go to:
http://homepages.ulb.ac.be/~fpattyn/mismip/

The preliminary deadline for submission of results is 1 March 2008.
Preliminary results will be discussed at the next European Geosciences
Union (EGU) meeting in April 2008, in Vienna, Austria.

Researchers wishing to participate, submit results, or request further
information should contact:
Philippe Huybrechts, ISMIP Coordinator
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
E-mail: phuybrec [at] vub.ac.be

Christian Schoof
University of British Columbia
E-mail: cschoof [at] eos.ubc.ca

Richard Hindmarsh
British Antarctic Survey
E-mail: rcah [at] bas.ac.uk

Frank Pattyn
Universite Libre de Bruxelles
E-mail: fpattyn [at] ulb.ac.be