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Titel |
Melting of Northern Greenland during the last interglaciation |
VerfasserIn |
Amandus Born, K. H. Nisancioglu |
Medientyp |
Artikel
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Sprache |
Englisch
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ISSN |
1994-0416
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Digitales Dokument |
URL |
Erschienen |
In: The Cryosphere ; 6, no. 6 ; Nr. 6, no. 6 (2012-11-05), S.1239-1250 |
Datensatznummer |
250003863
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Publikation (Nr.) |
copernicus.org/tc-6-1239-2012.pdf |
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Zusammenfassung |
Using simulated climate data from the comprehensive coupled climate model
IPSL CM4, we simulate the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) during the Eemian
interglaciation with the three-dimensional ice sheet model SICOPOLIS. The
Eemian is a period 126 000 yr before present (126 ka) with Arctic
temperatures comparable to projections for the end of this century. In our
simulation, the northeastern part of the GrIS is unstable and retreats
significantly, despite moderate melt rates. This result is found to be robust
to perturbations within a wide parameter space of key parameters of the ice
sheet model, the choice of initial ice temperature, and has been reproduced
with climate forcing from a second coupled climate model, the CCSM3. It is
shown that the northeast GrIS is the most vulnerable. Even a small increase
in melt removes many years of ice accumulation, giving a large mass imbalance
and triggering the strong ice-elevation feedback. Unlike the south and west,
melting in the northeast is not compensated by high accumulation. The analogy
with modern warming suggests that in coming decades, positive feedbacks could
increase the rate of mass loss of the northeastern GrIS, exceeding the recent
observed thinning rates in the south. |
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