Sensitivity of an energy balance climate model with predicted snowfall rates

• Main Author: Bowman, K. P.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1985
• Subjects: 47; Suarez; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19850062316

A snowfall parameterization and a polar-ice-sheet model are developed and applied to the two-level zonally averaged seasonal energy-balance climate model of Held and Suarez (1979), and sensitivity experiments involving changes in insolation are performed both with and without ice sheets. The results are presented in tables and graphs, and the hydrological-cycle response to insolation changes is found to be similar to that predicted by global-circulation models employing prescribed precipitation levels, with a somewhat higher sensitivity in the snow line. The area covered by ice sheets in the ice-sheet models is shown to be greater than that covered by permanent snow in the models without ice sheets, an effect attributed to lower surface temperatures over the ice. It is inferred that an increase in the solar constant can cause increased high-latitude precipitation but not an ice age.