ISMIP7 informs decision making by projecting sea level rise from the melting Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets

ISMIP7 is the Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project for CMIP7 (pronounced `IZ-mip`)

Melt of Earth's ice sheets is already contributing to flooding experienced by coastal communities, globally.

ISMIP7 uses computer simulations of ice sheet change (i.e., ice sheet modeling) to project future contributions to flooding by modeling how the ice sheets will lose or gain ice under the different potential futures for Earth's climate projected by CMIP.

Core to ISMIP7's approach is a broad and open collaboration of nearly all international ice sheet models, to incorporate as many uncertainties and as much glaciological information as possible.

News

Spring 2025: We are hiring! Thanks to a generous grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation, we are seeking team members to carry out many of the core activities that enable the success of ISMIP7 (these core activities are identified in blue, in the diagram at left). Please click here to learn about joining our cutting edge, service-oriented, and collaborative team.

About ISMIP7

ISMIP7 Mission

The mission of ISMIP7 is to establish consensus estimates of the sea level rise contribution from ice sheet change over the coming decades and centuries, given different trajectories for Earth's climate.

ISMIP7 Core activity

ISMIP7’s core activity is the design and delivery of projections of the sea level contribution of the ice sheets using Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) forcing. These projections are based on large-scale community intercomparisons among standalone ice sheets models and coupled Earth system models. This core activity is distinct from the wider ambitions of the ice sheet science community, for instance activities whose sole aims may be to improve individual ice sheet models, conduct research that relies on a limited number of models, or are designed primarily for better glaciological understanding alone.

ISMIP7 activities are designed for completion in time to inform the Seventh Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR7). ISMIP7 additionally provides information to practitioner communities working on the impacts of and adaptation to sea level rise.

Who we are

ISMIP7 is a global community of scientists working together to investigate the sea-level contribution from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets in the coming centuries, as well as their interactions with the global Earth system. Our expertise include ice sheet modeling, climate modeling, and observations.

How we work

ISMIP7 builds upon the work of previous intercomparison efforts, including ISMIP6, to refine projections of ice sheet evolution under different climate scenarios. ISMIP7's strength is in its members, who are located all over the world and that contribute knowledge, observational datasets, or model simulations. Our Scientific Steering Committee has overall responsibility for the direction of the project and planning our work. Our Focus Groups provide crucial knowledge and guide our protocols. ISMIP7 is the next phase of the ice sheet modeling effort within the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP7) and a targeted activity of CliC, the Climate and Cryosphere core project of the World Climate Research Program.