Coupled climate-glacier modelling of the last glaciation in the Alps ...

• Main Authors: Jouvet, Guillaume, Cohen, Denis, Russo, Emmanuele, Buzan, Jonathan, Raible, Christoph C., Haeberli, Wilfried, Kamleitner, Sarah, Ivy-Ochs, Susan, Imhof, Michael A., Becker, Jens K., Landgraf, Angela, Fischer, Urs H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2023
• Subjects: glacier modelling; moraine; paleoclimate; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000637778; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/637778

Our limited knowledge of the climate prevailing over Europe during former glaciations is the main obstacle to reconstruct the past evolution of the ice coverage over the Alps by numerical modelling. To address this challenge, we perform a two-step modelling approach: First, a regional climate model is used to downscale the time slice simulations of a global earth system model in high resolution, leading to climate snapshots during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the Marine Isotope Stage 4 (MIS4). Second, we combine these snapshots and a climate signal proxy to build a transient climate over the last glacial period and force the Parallel Ice Sheet Model to simulate the dynamical evolution of glaciers in the Alps. The results show that the extent of modelled glaciers during the LGM agrees with several independent key geological imprints, including moraine-based maximal reconstructed glacial extents, known ice transfluences and trajectories of erratic boulders of known origin and deposition. Our results ... : Journal of Glaciology ...