Project Lead: Mira Berdahl, UW Earth and Space Sciences

Data Science Lead: Scott Henderson

Modern Antarctic ice loss is largely driven by warm, dense circumpolar deep water (CDW), which reaches the ice sheet margin and causes ice to melt.  Antarctic mass loss has significant implications for global sea level rise, but the mechanisms that transport CDW to the ice sheet remain poorly understood. This is because observations are sparse, and most global climate models lack the spatial resolution to accurately represent the complex atmosphere-ocean processes at play. High-resolution global simulations now provide an opportunity to accurately represent critical features such as CDW transport.  This research aims to leverage an unprecedented set of high-resolution global climate simulations to decode the drivers of CDW transport and assess improvements in climate model accuracy.