Modeling the influence of Greenland ice sheet melting on the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation during the next millennia

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Driesschaert, Emmanuelle, Fichefet, Thierry, Goosse, Hugues, Huybrechts, P., Janssens, I., Mouchet, A., Munhoven, G., Brovkin, Victor, Weber, Shlomo
• Other Authors: UCL - SC/PHYS - Département de physique, UCL - SST/ELI/ELIC - Earth & Climate
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Amer Geophysical Union 2007
• Subjects: Greenland; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/37599; https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL029516

A three-dimensional Earth system model of intermediate complexity including a dynamic ice sheet component has been used to investigate the long-term evolution of the Greenland ice sheet and its effects on the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) in response to a range of stabilized anthropogenic forcings. Our results suggest that the Greenland ice sheet volume should experience a significant decrease in the future. For a radiative forcing exceeding 7.5 W m(-2), the modeled ice sheet melts away within 3000 years. A number of feedbacks operate during this deglaciation, implying a strong nonlinear relationship between the radiative forcing and the melting rate. Only in the most extreme scenarios considered, the freshwater flux from Greenland into the surrounding oceans ( of ca. 0.1 Sv during a few centuries) induces a noticeable weakening of the AMOC in the model.