Simulations of Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet retreat:sensitivity to physical mechanisms involved during the Last Deglaciation

• Published in: Quaternary Science Reviews
• Main Authors: Charbit, Sylvie, Ritz, Catherine, Ramstein, Gilles
• Other Authors: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), Modélisation du climat (CLIM), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2002
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces; environment; Fennoscandia; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03012490; https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-3791(01)00093-2

International audience A 3-dimensional thermomechanical ice-sheet model is used to simulate the evolution of the geometry of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets through the Last Deglaciation. The ice-sheet model is forced by a time-evolving climatology provided by the linear interpolation through time of climate snapshots simulated by the LMD5.3 atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) at different periods of the Last Deglaciation (21, 15, 9, 6 and 0 kyr BP). The AGCM is driven by insolation, atmospheric CO2 content, ice-sheet configuration and sea surface temperatures. Although our approach is able to produce the complete continental ice retreat, our simulated deglaciation presents a phase-lag with reconstructions based on observational evidences. This suggests that physical mechanisms related to climate forcing and/or ice-sheet internal dynamics are not properly represented. The influence of millennial-scale forcing, feedback mechanisms between ice-sheet elevation and surface mass balance and parameterization of the ice flow is also tested through a set of sensitivity experiments. The rapid variability has a strong impact on the evolution of the ice volume because of nonlinear effects in temperature-mass balance relationships. Fennoscandia appears to be strongly sensitive to the small-scale ice-sheet instability. Both ice sheets are to some extent sensitive to an increased basal sliding.