Paper: Stone et al 2010

Title: Investigating the sensitivity of numerical model simulations of the modern state of the Greenland ice-sheet and its future response to climate change

For a fuller description of the paper itself, go to the end of this web page.

Each simulation published in this paper corresponds to a unique 5 or 6 character code on the web pages.
The following table lists the name of the simulation as used in the paper, and the corresponding code name

The webpage gives you the ability to examine the published simulations, but you can also download the raw (netcdf) files to perform your own analysis. Detailed instructions on how to use the webpages and access the data can be found here: Using_BRIDGE_webpages.pdf

There are a lot of simulations going into this paper but they are grouped around two sequences, one using orbital and greenhouse gas forcing and the second also including ice sheets and land sea changes.

You can have make you own analysis and plots by going here

Simulation Name as in PaperSimulation name on web pages
Pre-Industrial HadCM3 control simulation (associated with 400pmv and 560ppmv expts)tbpse
400ppmv HadCM3 simulationtbpsb
560ppmv HadCM3 simulationtbpsc
Pre-Industrial HadCM3L control simulation (associated with 1120ppmv simulation)xbowc
1120ppmv HadCM3L simulationxbowe


This is a fuller description of paper

This paper presents an ensemble of Glimmer ice sheet model simulations which test the sensitivity of the modern state of the Greenland ice sheet to various parameters.The six 'best' ensemble members are selected and forced with future scenario HadCM3 climatologies showing a threshold of ice sheet collapse for carbon dioxide values between 400 and 560ppmv.

NameStone et al
Brief DescriptionThis paper presents an ensemble of Glimmer ice sheet model simulations which test the sensitivity of the modern state of the Greenland ice sheet to various parameters.The six 'best' ensemble members are selected and forced with future scenario HadCM3 climatologies showing a threshold of ice sheet collapse for carbon dioxide values between 400 and 560ppmv.
Full Author ListE. J. Stone, D. J. Lunt, I. C. Rutt, E. Hanna
TitleInvestigating the sensitivity of numerical model simulations of the modern state of the Greenland ice-sheet and its future response to climate change
Year2010
JournalThe Cryosphere
Volume4
Issue3-4
Pages397-417
DOI10.5194/tc-4-397-2010
Contact's NameEmma Stone
Contact's emailEmma.j.stone@bristol.ac.uk
AbstractIce thickness and bedrock topography are essential boundary conditions for numerical modelling of the evolution of the Greenland ice-sheet (GrIS). The datasets currently in use by the majority of GrIS modelling studies are over two decades old and based on data collected from the 1970s and 80s. We use a newer, hig -resolution Digital Elevation Model of the GrIS and new temperature and precipitation forcings to drive the Glimmer ice-sheet model offline under steady state, present day climatic conditions. Comparisons are made of ice-sheet geometry between these new datasets and older ones used in the EISMINT-3 exercise. We find that changing to the newer bedrock and ice thickness makes the greatest difference to Greenland ice volume and ice surface extent. When all boundary conditions and forcings are simultaneously changed to the newer datasets the ice-sheet is 33% larger in volume compared with observation and 17% larger than that modelled by EISMINT-3. We performed a tuning exercise to improve the modelled present day ice-sheet. Several solutions were chosen in order to represent improvement in different aspects of the GrIS geometry: ice thickness, ice volume and ice surface extent. We applied these new parameter sets for Glimmer to several future climate scenarios where atmospheric CO2 concentration was elevated to 400, 560 and 1120 ppmv (compared with 280 ppmv in the control) using a fully coupled General Circulation Model. Collapse of the ice-sheet was found to occur between 400 and 560 ppmv, a threshold substantially lower than previously modelled using the standard EISMINT-3 setup. This work highlights the need to assess carefully boundary conditions and forcings required by ice-sheet models, particularly in terms of the abstractions required for large-scale ice-sheet models, and the implications that these can have on predictions of ice-sheet geometry under past and future climate scenarios