Greater Greenland Ice Sheet contribution to global sea level rise in CMIP6

• Published in: Nature Communications
• Main Authors: Hofer, Stefan, Lang, Charlotte, Amory, Charles, Kittel, Christoph, Delhasse, Alison, Tedstone, Andrew, Fettweis, Xavier
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
• Subjects: Article; Arctic; Greenland; Global warming; Ice Sheet; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7738669/; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33323939; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20011-8

Future climate projections show a marked increase in Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) runoff during the 21(st) century, a direct consequence of the Polar Amplification signal. Regional climate models (RCMs) are a widely used tool to downscale ensembles of projections from global climate models (GCMs) to assess the impact of global warming on GrIS melt and sea level rise contribution. Initial results of the CMIP6 GCM model intercomparison project have revealed a greater 21(st) century temperature rise than in CMIP5 models. However, so far very little is known about the subsequent impacts on the future GrIS surface melt and therefore sea level rise contribution. Here, we show that the total GrIS sea level rise contribution from surface mass loss in our high-resolution (15 km) regional climate projections is 17.8 ± 7.8 cm in SSP585, 7.9 cm more than in our RCP8.5 simulations using CMIP5 input. We identify a +1.3 °C greater Arctic Amplification and associated cloud and sea ice feedbacks in the CMIP6 SSP585 scenario as the main drivers. Additionally, an assessment of the GrIS sea level contribution across all emission scenarios highlights, that the GrIS mass loss in CMIP6 is equivalent to a CMIP5 scenario with twice the global radiative forcing.