The contribution of melt ponds to enhanced Arctic sea-ice melt during the Last Interglacial
The Hadley Centre Global Environment Model version 3 (HadGEM3) is the first coupled climate model to simulate an ice-free Arctic during the Last Interglacial (LIG), 127 000 years ago. This simulation appears to yield accurate Arctic surface temperatures during the summer season. Here, we investigate...
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European Geosciences Union
2021
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:529688 2023-05-15T13:11:20+02:00 The contribution of melt ponds to enhanced Arctic sea-ice melt during the Last Interglacial Diamond, Rachel Sime, Louise C. Schroeder, David Guarino, Maria-Vittoria 2021-11-09 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529688/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529688/1/tc-15-5099-2021.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/5099/2021/ en eng European Geosciences Union https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529688/1/tc-15-5099-2021.pdf Diamond, Rachel; Sime, Louise C. orcid:0000-0002-9093-7926 Schroeder, David; Guarino, Maria-Vittoria orcid:0000-0002-7531-4560 . 2021 The contribution of melt ponds to enhanced Arctic sea-ice melt during the Last Interglacial. The Cryosphere, 15 (11). 5099-5114. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5099-2021 <https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5099-2021> cc_by_4 CC-BY Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2021 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5099-2021 2023-02-04T19:51:46Z The Hadley Centre Global Environment Model version 3 (HadGEM3) is the first coupled climate model to simulate an ice-free Arctic during the Last Interglacial (LIG), 127 000 years ago. This simulation appears to yield accurate Arctic surface temperatures during the summer season. Here, we investigate the causes and impacts of this extreme simulated ice loss. We find that the summer ice melt was predominantly driven by thermodynamic processes: atmospheric and ocean circulation changes did not significantly contribute to the ice loss. We demonstrate these thermodynamic processes were significantly impacted by melt ponds, which formed on average 8 d earlier during the LIG than during the pre-industrial control (PI) simulation. This relatively small difference significantly changed the LIG surface energy balance and impacted the albedo feedback. Compared to the PI simulation: in mid-June, of the absorbed flux at the surface over ice-covered cells (sea-ice concentration > 0.15), ponds accounted for 45 %–50 %, open water 35 %–45 %, and bare ice and snow 5 %–10 %. We show that the simulated ice loss led to large Arctic sea surface salinity and temperature changes. The sea surface temperature and salinity signals we identify here provide a means to verify, in marine observations, if and when an ice-free Arctic occurred during the LIG. Strong LIG correlations between spring melt pond and summer ice area indicate that, as Arctic ice continues to thin in future, the spring melt pond area will likely become an increasingly reliable predictor of the September sea-ice area. Finally, we note that models with explicitly modelled melt ponds seem to simulate particularly low LIG sea-ice area. These results show that models with explicit (as opposed to parameterised) melt ponds can simulate very different sea-ice behaviour under forcings other than the present day. This is of concern for future projections of sea-ice loss. Article in Journal/Newspaper albedo Arctic Arctic Sea ice The Cryosphere Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Arctic The Cryosphere 15 11 5099 5114 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftnerc |
language |
English |
description |
The Hadley Centre Global Environment Model version 3 (HadGEM3) is the first coupled climate model to simulate an ice-free Arctic during the Last Interglacial (LIG), 127 000 years ago. This simulation appears to yield accurate Arctic surface temperatures during the summer season. Here, we investigate the causes and impacts of this extreme simulated ice loss. We find that the summer ice melt was predominantly driven by thermodynamic processes: atmospheric and ocean circulation changes did not significantly contribute to the ice loss. We demonstrate these thermodynamic processes were significantly impacted by melt ponds, which formed on average 8 d earlier during the LIG than during the pre-industrial control (PI) simulation. This relatively small difference significantly changed the LIG surface energy balance and impacted the albedo feedback. Compared to the PI simulation: in mid-June, of the absorbed flux at the surface over ice-covered cells (sea-ice concentration > 0.15), ponds accounted for 45 %–50 %, open water 35 %–45 %, and bare ice and snow 5 %–10 %. We show that the simulated ice loss led to large Arctic sea surface salinity and temperature changes. The sea surface temperature and salinity signals we identify here provide a means to verify, in marine observations, if and when an ice-free Arctic occurred during the LIG. Strong LIG correlations between spring melt pond and summer ice area indicate that, as Arctic ice continues to thin in future, the spring melt pond area will likely become an increasingly reliable predictor of the September sea-ice area. Finally, we note that models with explicitly modelled melt ponds seem to simulate particularly low LIG sea-ice area. These results show that models with explicit (as opposed to parameterised) melt ponds can simulate very different sea-ice behaviour under forcings other than the present day. This is of concern for future projections of sea-ice loss. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Diamond, Rachel Sime, Louise C. Schroeder, David Guarino, Maria-Vittoria |
spellingShingle |
Diamond, Rachel Sime, Louise C. Schroeder, David Guarino, Maria-Vittoria The contribution of melt ponds to enhanced Arctic sea-ice melt during the Last Interglacial |
author_facet |
Diamond, Rachel Sime, Louise C. Schroeder, David Guarino, Maria-Vittoria |
author_sort |
Diamond, Rachel |
title |
The contribution of melt ponds to enhanced Arctic sea-ice melt during the Last Interglacial |
title_short |
The contribution of melt ponds to enhanced Arctic sea-ice melt during the Last Interglacial |
title_full |
The contribution of melt ponds to enhanced Arctic sea-ice melt during the Last Interglacial |
title_fullStr |
The contribution of melt ponds to enhanced Arctic sea-ice melt during the Last Interglacial |
title_full_unstemmed |
The contribution of melt ponds to enhanced Arctic sea-ice melt during the Last Interglacial |
title_sort |
contribution of melt ponds to enhanced arctic sea-ice melt during the last interglacial |
publisher |
European Geosciences Union |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529688/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529688/1/tc-15-5099-2021.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/15/5099/2021/ |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
albedo Arctic Arctic Sea ice The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
albedo Arctic Arctic Sea ice The Cryosphere |
op_relation |
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529688/1/tc-15-5099-2021.pdf Diamond, Rachel; Sime, Louise C. orcid:0000-0002-9093-7926 Schroeder, David; Guarino, Maria-Vittoria orcid:0000-0002-7531-4560 . 2021 The contribution of melt ponds to enhanced Arctic sea-ice melt during the Last Interglacial. The Cryosphere, 15 (11). 5099-5114. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5099-2021 <https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5099-2021> |
op_rights |
cc_by_4 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5099-2021 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
15 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
5099 |
op_container_end_page |
5114 |
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1766246913092354048 |