The importance of insolation changes for paleo ice sheet modeling
The importance of insolation changes for paleo ice sheet modeling
复制标题
日照变化对于古冰盖建模的重要性
DOI:
10.5194/tc-8-1419-2014
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发表时间:
2014
期刊:
影响因子:
--
通讯作者:
H. Goelzer
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
A. Robinson;H. Goelzer
The growth and retreat of continental ice sheets in the past has largely been a response to changing climatic forcing. Since ablation is the principal component of mass loss for land-based ice sheets, the calculation of surface melt is an important aspect of paleo ice sheet modeling. Changes in insolation are often not accounted for in calculations of surface melt, under the assumption that the near-surface tem- perature transmits the majority of the climatic forcing to the ice sheet. To assess how this could affect paleo simulations, here we investigate the importance of different orbital config- urations for estimating melt on the Greenland ice sheet. We find that during peak Eemian conditions, increased insolation contributes 20-50 % to the surface melt anomaly. However, this percentage depends strongly on the temperature anomaly at the time. For higher temperature anomalies, the role of in- solation changes is less important. This relationship is not homogenous over the ice sheet, since the contribution of in- solation to melt is modulated by the local surface albedo. In coupled simulations, the additional insolation-induced melt translates into up to threefold more ice volume loss, com- pared to output using a model that does not account for inso- lation changes. We also introduce a simple correction factor that allows reduced-complexity melt models to account for changes in insolation.