The response of the Greenland ice sheet to climate changes in the 21st century by interactive coupling of an AOGCM with a thermomechanical ice-sheet model

• Main Authors: Huybrechts, Philippe, Janssens, I., Poncin, C., Fichefet, T.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2002
• Subjects: Greenland; Annals of Glaciology; Ice Sheet; North Atlantic; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/4510/; https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/4510/1/Huy2002c.pdf; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.15085; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.15085.d001

We present results from a greenhouse warming experiment obtained from an atmosphere-ocean-sea ice general circulation model that is fully interactively coupled with a three-dimensional model of the Greenland ice sheet. The experiment covers the period 1970-2099 and is driven by the IPCC SRES B2 scenario. The Greenland model is a thermomechanical high-resolution (20 km) model coupled with a visco-elastic bedrock model. The melt-and-runoff model is based on the positive-degree day method and includes meltwater retention in the snowpack and the formation of superimposed ice. The AOGCM is a coarse resolution model without flux correction based on the LMD 5.3 atmospheric model coupled with a primitive-equation, free-surface oceanic component incorporating sea ice (CLIO). By 2100, average Greenland annual temperature is found to rise by about 4.5°C and mean precipitation by about 35 %. The total fresh water flux approximately doubles over this period due to increased runoff from the ice sheet and the ice-free land, but the calving rate is found to decrease by 25%. The ice sheet shrinks equivalent to 4 cm of sea-level rise. The contribution from the background evolution is not more than 5 %. We did not find significant changes in the patterns of climate change over the North Atlantic region compared with a climate change run without Greenland fresh water feedback.