Richard111
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Interesting thread, thank you. Sadly I lack the ability to extract the information I think I need and suspect it may be in the energy graphs above. So, if I may, I would like to ask a very hypothetical question:
Assuming current global energy levels are in balance, would it be possible to calculate, as a "forcing", the amount of energy needed to melt 96,983.8 cubic miles of ice and what would be the shortest timescale to achieve this?
Apologies if this is off topic or the wrong thread. The reason I ask is the many predictions of sea level rise being touted in the media. The latest, I read today, claimed the WWF is forecasting a 1 meter sea level rise in the next 10 years.
The ice figure above is my calculation ignoring the extra that would be required to fill low coastal areas. I am also assuming that ice already in the sea is not included. The melt must come from continental ice on Greenland and Antarctica. This also means the melt energy is provided by the atmosphere only.
I attempted to use the following:
The isothermal melting of ice requires some 334 kilojoules per kilogram at 273.16 K. At lower temperatures, it requires an average of some 2 kilojoules per degree more.
I calculated the total energy required and divided by ten to get the annual energy then divided that into the area of the planet to get watts per square meter. Problem is I am not sure I am going about this correctly. Also air melts ice from the top down, there is a limited contact area which I feel would have some effect on slowing down the energy transfer into the ice. How this would effect the timescale is beyond me.
Any thoughts or advice welcome.
Richard
Assuming current global energy levels are in balance, would it be possible to calculate, as a "forcing", the amount of energy needed to melt 96,983.8 cubic miles of ice and what would be the shortest timescale to achieve this?
Apologies if this is off topic or the wrong thread. The reason I ask is the many predictions of sea level rise being touted in the media. The latest, I read today, claimed the WWF is forecasting a 1 meter sea level rise in the next 10 years.
The ice figure above is my calculation ignoring the extra that would be required to fill low coastal areas. I am also assuming that ice already in the sea is not included. The melt must come from continental ice on Greenland and Antarctica. This also means the melt energy is provided by the atmosphere only.
I attempted to use the following:
The isothermal melting of ice requires some 334 kilojoules per kilogram at 273.16 K. At lower temperatures, it requires an average of some 2 kilojoules per degree more.
I calculated the total energy required and divided by ten to get the annual energy then divided that into the area of the planet to get watts per square meter. Problem is I am not sure I am going about this correctly. Also air melts ice from the top down, there is a limited contact area which I feel would have some effect on slowing down the energy transfer into the ice. How this would effect the timescale is beyond me.
Any thoughts or advice welcome.
Richard