The influence of atmospheric grid resolution in a climate model-forced ice sheet simulation
Coupled climate-ice sheet simulations have been growing in popularity in recent years. Experiments of this type are however challenging as ice sheets evolve over multi-millennial timescales, which is beyond the practical integration limit of most Earth system models. A common method to increase mode...
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ftncar:oai:drupal-site.org:articles_21612 2023-09-05T13:20:13+02:00 The influence of atmospheric grid resolution in a climate model-forced ice sheet simulation Lofverstrom, Marcus (author) Liakka, Johan (author) 2018-04-23 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1499-2018 en eng The Cryosphere--The Cryosphere--1994-0424 articles:21612 ark:/85065/d7qj7m25 doi:10.5194/tc-12-1499-2018 Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. article Text 2018 ftncar https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1499-2018 2023-08-14T18:47:12Z Coupled climate-ice sheet simulations have been growing in popularity in recent years. Experiments of this type are however challenging as ice sheets evolve over multi-millennial timescales, which is beyond the practical integration limit of most Earth system models. A common method to increase model throughput is to trade resolution for computational efficiency (compromise accuracy for speed). Here we analyze how the resolution of an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) influences the simulation quality in a stand-alone ice sheet model. Four identical AGCM simulations of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) were run at different horizontal resolutions: T85 (1.4 degrees), T42 (2.8 degrees), T31 (3.8 degrees), and T21 (5.6 degrees). These simulations were subsequently used as forcing of an ice sheet model. While the T85 climate forcing reproduces the LGM ice sheets to a high accuracy, the intermediate resolution cases (T42 and T31) fail to build the Eurasian ice sheet. The T21 case fails in both Eurasia and North America. Sensitivity experiments using different surface mass balance parameterizations improve the simulations of the Eurasian ice sheet in the T42 case, but the compromise is a substantial ice buildup in Siberia. The T31 and T21 cases do not improve in the same way in Eurasia, though the latter simulates the continent-wide Laurentide ice sheet in North America. The difficulty to reproduce the LGM ice sheets in the T21 case is in broad agreement with previous studies using low-resolution atmospheric models, and is caused by a substantial deterioration of the model climate between the T31 and T21 resolutions. It is speculated that this deficiency may demonstrate a fundamental problem with using low-resolution atmospheric models in these types of experiments. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ice Sheet The Cryosphere Siberia OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) The Cryosphere 12 4 1499 1510 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) |
op_collection_id |
ftncar |
language |
English |
description |
Coupled climate-ice sheet simulations have been growing in popularity in recent years. Experiments of this type are however challenging as ice sheets evolve over multi-millennial timescales, which is beyond the practical integration limit of most Earth system models. A common method to increase model throughput is to trade resolution for computational efficiency (compromise accuracy for speed). Here we analyze how the resolution of an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) influences the simulation quality in a stand-alone ice sheet model. Four identical AGCM simulations of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) were run at different horizontal resolutions: T85 (1.4 degrees), T42 (2.8 degrees), T31 (3.8 degrees), and T21 (5.6 degrees). These simulations were subsequently used as forcing of an ice sheet model. While the T85 climate forcing reproduces the LGM ice sheets to a high accuracy, the intermediate resolution cases (T42 and T31) fail to build the Eurasian ice sheet. The T21 case fails in both Eurasia and North America. Sensitivity experiments using different surface mass balance parameterizations improve the simulations of the Eurasian ice sheet in the T42 case, but the compromise is a substantial ice buildup in Siberia. The T31 and T21 cases do not improve in the same way in Eurasia, though the latter simulates the continent-wide Laurentide ice sheet in North America. The difficulty to reproduce the LGM ice sheets in the T21 case is in broad agreement with previous studies using low-resolution atmospheric models, and is caused by a substantial deterioration of the model climate between the T31 and T21 resolutions. It is speculated that this deficiency may demonstrate a fundamental problem with using low-resolution atmospheric models in these types of experiments. |
author2 |
Lofverstrom, Marcus (author) Liakka, Johan (author) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
title |
The influence of atmospheric grid resolution in a climate model-forced ice sheet simulation |
spellingShingle |
The influence of atmospheric grid resolution in a climate model-forced ice sheet simulation |
title_short |
The influence of atmospheric grid resolution in a climate model-forced ice sheet simulation |
title_full |
The influence of atmospheric grid resolution in a climate model-forced ice sheet simulation |
title_fullStr |
The influence of atmospheric grid resolution in a climate model-forced ice sheet simulation |
title_full_unstemmed |
The influence of atmospheric grid resolution in a climate model-forced ice sheet simulation |
title_sort |
influence of atmospheric grid resolution in a climate model-forced ice sheet simulation |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1499-2018 |
genre |
Ice Sheet The Cryosphere Siberia |
genre_facet |
Ice Sheet The Cryosphere Siberia |
op_relation |
The Cryosphere--The Cryosphere--1994-0424 articles:21612 ark:/85065/d7qj7m25 doi:10.5194/tc-12-1499-2018 |
op_rights |
Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1499-2018 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
1499 |
op_container_end_page |
1510 |
_version_ |
1776200939653300224 |