Global glacier volume projections under high-end climate change scenarios

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: Shannon, S, Smith, R, Wiltshire, A, Payne, T, Huss, M, Betts, R, Caesar, J, Koutroulis, A, Jones, D, Harrison, S
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: European Geosciences Union (EGU) / Copernicus Publications 2019
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctic; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/36463; https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-325-2019

This is the final version. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record. Code availability. The glacier scheme is included in JULES v4.7. The source code can be downloaded by accessing the Met Office Science Repository Service (MOSRS) (requires registration): https://code.metoffice.gov.uk/ (last access: 23 June 2017). The code used for this study is in https://code.metoffice.gov.uk/svn/ jules/main/branches/dev/sarahshannon/vn4.7_va_scaling (last access: 23 June 2017). The Paris agreement aims to hold global warming to well below 2 °C and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 °C relative to the pre-industrial period. Recent estimates based on population growth and intended carbon emissions from participant countries suggest global warming may exceed this ambitious target. Here we present glacier volume projections for the end of this century, under a range of high-end climate change scenarios, defined as exceeding +2° C global average warming relative to the pre-industrial period. Glacier volume is modelled by developing an elevation-dependent mass balance model for the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES). To do this, we modify JULES to include glaciated and unglaciated surfaces that can exist at multiple heights within a single grid box. Present-day mass balance is calibrated by tuning albedo, wind speed, precipitation, and temperature lapse rates to obtain the best agreement with observed mass balance profiles. JULES is forced with an ensemble of six Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) models, which were downscaled using the high-resolution HadGEM3-A atmosphere-only global climate model. The CMIP5 models use the RCP8.5 climate change scenario and were selected on the criteria of passing 2 °C global average warming during this century. The ensemble mean volume loss at the end of the century plus or minus 1 standard deviation is-64±5% for all glaciers excluding those on the peripheral of the Antarctic ice sheet. The uncertainty in the multi-model mean is rather small and ...