Ice sheet dynamics within an earth system model: downscaling, coupling and first results
We present first results from a coupled model setup, consisting of the state-of-the-art ice sheet model RIMBAY (Revised Ice Model Based on frAnk pattYn), and the community earth system model COSMOS. We show that special care has to be provided in order to ensure physical distributions of the forcing...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2014-09-01
|
| Series: | Geoscientific Model Development |
| Online Access: | http://www.geosci-model-dev.net/7/2003/2014/gmd-7-2003-2014.pdf |
| Summary: | We present first results from a coupled model setup, consisting of the
state-of-the-art ice sheet model RIMBAY (Revised Ice Model Based on frAnk
pattYn), and the community earth system model COSMOS. We show that special
care has to be provided in order to ensure physical distributions of the
forcings as well as numeric stability of the involved models. We demonstrate
that a suitable statistical downscaling is crucial for ice sheet stability,
especially for southern Greenland where surface temperatures are close to the
melting point. The downscaling of net snow accumulation is based on an
empirical relationship between surface slope and rainfall. The simulated ice
sheet does not show dramatic loss of ice volume for pre-industrial conditions
and is comparable with present-day ice orography. A sensitivity study with
high CO<sub>2</sub> level is used to demonstrate the effects of dynamic ice
sheets onto climate compared to the standard setup with prescribed ice
sheets. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1991-959X 1991-9603 |