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Net accumulation of the Greenland ice sheet: High resolution modeling of climate changes
Author(s) -
Kiilsholm Sissi,
Christensen Jens Hesselbjerg,
Dethloff Klaus,
Rinke Annette
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2002gl015742
Subject(s) - climate model , climatology , environmental science , greenland ice sheet , climate change , general circulation model , arctic , ice sheet , ice sheet model , atmospheric sciences , atmospheric model , sea ice , geology , cryosphere , ice stream , oceanography
High‐resolution (50 km) climate change simulations for an area covering the entire Arctic have been conducted with the regional climate model (RCM) HIRHAM. The experiments were forced at the lateral boundary by large‐scale atmospheric conditions from transient climate change scenario simulations performed with the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology coupled ocean atmosphere general circulation model (OAGCM) ECHAM4/OPYC3 with a resolution of ∼300 km. The emission scenarios used were the IPCC SRES [ Nakicenovic , 2000] marker scenarios A2 and B2. Three 30‐year time slice experiments were conducted with HIRHAM for periods representing present‐day (1961–1990) and the future (2071–2100) in the two scenarios. We find that due to a much better representation of the surface topography in the RCM, the geographical distribution of present‐day accumulation rates simulated by the RCM represents a substantial improvement compared to the driving OAGCM. Estimates of the regional net balance are also better represented by the RCM. In the future climate the net balance for the Greenland Ice Sheet is reduced in all the simulation, but discrepancies between the amounts when based on ECHAM4/OPYC3 and HIRHAM are found. In both scenarios, the estimated melt rates are larger in HIRHAM than in the driving model.