Incorporation of ice sheet models into an Earth system model: Focus on methodology of coupling

Abstract. We investigate glacial inception and glacial thresholds in the climate-cryosphere system utilising the Earth system model of intermediate complexity CLIMBER-2, which includes modules for atmosphere, terrestrial vegetation, ocean and interactive ice sheets. The latter are described by the three-dimensional polythermal ice-sheet model SICOPOLIS. A bifurcation which represents glacial inception is analysed with two different model setups: one setup with dynamical ice-sheet model and another setup without it. The respective glacial thresholds differ in terms of maximum boreal summer insolation at 65° N (hereafter referred as Milankovitch forcing (MF)). The glacial threshold of the configuration without ice-sheet dynamics corresponds to a much lower value of MF compared to the full model. If MF attains values only slightly below the aforementioned threshold there is fast transient response. Depending on the value of MF relative to the glacial threshold, the transient response time of inland-ice volume in the model configuration with ice-sheet dynamics ranges from 10 000 to 100 000 years. Due to these long response times, a glacial threshold obtained in an equilibrium simulation is not directly applicable to the transient response of the climate-cryosphere system to time-dependent orbital forcing. It is demonstrated that in transient simulations just crossing of the glacial threshold does not imply large-scale glaciation of the Northern Hemisphere. We found that in transient simulations MF has to drop well below the glacial threshold determined in an equilibrium simulation to initiate glacial inception. Finally, we show that the asynchronous coupling between climate and inland-ice components allows one sufficient realistic simulation of glacial inception and, at the same time, a considerable reduction of computational costs.

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MPAS-Albany Land Ice (MALI): A variable resolution ice sheet model for Earth system modeling using Voronoi grids

10.5194/gmd-2018-78 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Matthew J. Hoffman ◽

Mauro Perego ◽

Stephen F. Price ◽

William H. Lipscomb ◽

Douglas Jacobsen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ice Sheet ◽

Earth System Model ◽

Coupled Systems ◽

System Model ◽

Type Model ◽

Earth System ◽

Ice Dynamics ◽

Variable Resolution ◽

Horizontal Advection ◽

First Order

Abstract. We introduce MPAS-Albany Land Ice (MALI), a new, variable resolution land ice model that uses unstructured Voronoi grids on a plane or sphere. MALI is built using the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS) framework for developing variable resolution Earth System Model components and the Albany multi-physics code base for solution of coupled systems of partial-differential equations, which itself makes use of Trilinos solver libraries. MALI includes a three-dimensional, first-order momentum balance solver ("Blatter-Pattyn") by linking to the Albany-LI ice sheet velocity solver, as well as an explicit shallow ice velocity solver. Evolution of ice geometry and tracers is handled through an explicit first-order horizontal advection scheme with vertical remapping. Evolution of ice temperature is treated using operator splitting of vertical diffusion and horizontal advection and can be configured to use either a temperature or enthalpy formulation. MALI includes a mass-conserving subglacial hydrology model that supports distributed and/or channelized drainage and can optionally be coupled to ice dynamics. Options for calving include "eigencalving", which assumes calving rate is proportional to extensional strain rates. MALI is evaluated against commonly used exact solutions and community benchmark experiments and shows the expected accuracy. We report first results for the MISMIP3d benchmark experiments for a Blatter-Pattyn type model and show that results fall in-between those of models using Stokes flow and L1L2 approximations. We use the model to simulate a semi-realistic Antarctic Ice Sheet problem for 1100 years at 20 km resolution. MALI is the glacier component of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) version 1, and we describe current and planned coupling to other components.

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Greenland Surface Mass Balance as Simulated by the Community Earth System Model. Part II: Twenty-First-Century Changes

Journal of Climate ◽

10.1175/jcli-d-12-00588.1 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 215-226 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Miren Vizcaíno ◽

William H. Lipscomb ◽

William J. Sacks ◽

Michiel van den Broeke

Keyword(s):

Mass Balance ◽

Ice Sheet ◽

Earth System Model ◽

First Century ◽

System Model ◽

Surface Mass Balance ◽

Earth System ◽

Surface Mass ◽

Community Earth System Model ◽

Twenty First Century

Abstract This study presents the first twenty-first-century projections of surface mass balance (SMB) changes for the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) with the Community Earth System Model (CESM), which includes a new ice sheet component. For glaciated surfaces, CESM includes a sophisticated calculation of energy fluxes, surface albedo, and snowpack hydrology (melt, percolation, refreezing, etc.). To efficiently resolve the high SMB gradients at the ice sheet margins and provide surface forcing at the scale needed by ice sheet models, the SMB is calculated at multiple elevations and interpolated to a finer 5-km ice sheet grid. During a twenty-first-century simulation driven by representative concentration pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5) forcing, the SMB decreases from 372 ± 100 Gt yr−1 in 1980–99 to −78 ± 143 Gt yr−1 in 2080–99. The 2080–99 near-surface temperatures over the GIS increase by 4.7 K (annual mean) with respect to 1980–99, only 1.3 times the global increase (+3.7 K). Snowfall increases by 18%, while surface melt doubles. The ablation area increases from 9% of the GIS in 1980–99 to 28% in 2080–99. Over the ablation areas, summer downward longwave radiation and turbulent fluxes increase, while incoming shortwave radiation decreases owing to increased cloud cover. The reduction in GIS-averaged July albedo from 0.78 in 1980–99 to 0.75 in 2080–99 increases the absorbed solar radiation in this month by 12%. Summer warming is strongest in the north and east of Greenland owing to reduced sea ice cover. In the ablation area, summer temperature increases are smaller due to frequent periods of surface melt.

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MPAS-Albany Land Ice (MALI): a variable-resolution ice sheet model for Earth system modeling using Voronoi grids

Geoscientific Model Development ◽

10.5194/gmd-11-3747-2018 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 11 (9) ◽

pp. 3747-3780 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Matthew J. Hoffman ◽

Mauro Perego ◽

Stephen F. Price ◽

William H. Lipscomb ◽

Tong Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ice Sheet ◽

Earth System Model ◽

Coupled Systems ◽

System Model ◽

Momentum Balance ◽

Earth System ◽

Ice Dynamics ◽

Variable Resolution ◽

Horizontal Advection ◽

First Order

Abstract. We introduce MPAS-Albany Land Ice (MALI) v6.0, a new variable-resolution land ice model that uses unstructured Voronoi grids on a plane or sphere. MALI is built using the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS) framework for developing variable-resolution Earth system model components and the Albany multi-physics code base for the solution of coupled systems of partial differential equations, which itself makes use of Trilinos solver libraries. MALI includes a three-dimensional first-order momentum balance solver (Blatter–Pattyn) by linking to the Albany-LI ice sheet velocity solver and an explicit shallow ice velocity solver. The evolution of ice geometry and tracers is handled through an explicit first-order horizontal advection scheme with vertical remapping. The evolution of ice temperature is treated using operator splitting of vertical diffusion and horizontal advection and can be configured to use either a temperature or enthalpy formulation. MALI includes a mass-conserving subglacial hydrology model that supports distributed and/or channelized drainage and can optionally be coupled to ice dynamics. Options for calving include “eigencalving”, which assumes that the calving rate is proportional to extensional strain rates. MALI is evaluated against commonly used exact solutions and community benchmark experiments and shows the expected accuracy. Results for the MISMIP3d benchmark experiments with MALI's Blatter–Pattyn solver fall between published results from Stokes and L1L2 models as expected. We use the model to simulate a semi-realistic Antarctic ice sheet problem following the initMIP protocol and using 2 km resolution in marine ice sheet regions. MALI is the glacier component of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) version 1, and we describe current and planned coupling to other E3SM components.

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Calculation of mass discharge of the Greenland ice sheet in the Earth System Model

Journal Ice and Snow ◽

10.15356/2076-6734-2016-3-293-308 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 56 (3) ◽

pp. 293-308 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

O. O. Rybak ◽

E. M. Volodin ◽

A. P. Nevecherya ◽

P. A. Morozova ◽

M. M. Кaminskaya

Keyword(s):

Ice Sheet ◽

Greenland Ice Sheet ◽

Earth System Model ◽

System Model ◽

Earth System ◽

The Earth ◽

Mass Discharge

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Simulation of LGM ice sheets with the Community Earth System Model version 2

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-15463 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sarah L Bradley ◽

Michele Petrini ◽

Raymond Sellevold ◽

Miren Vizcaino ◽

William H. Lipscomb ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ice Sheets ◽

Ice Sheet ◽

Earth System Model ◽

System Model ◽

Earth System ◽

Last Deglaciation ◽

Model Version ◽

Starting Point ◽

Community Earth System Model ◽

The Last Deglaciation

The last deglaciation provides as unique a framework to investigate the processes of ice sheet and climate interaction during periods of mass loss as in the current climate. Here we simulate the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) northern hemisphere ice sheets climate, surface mass balance (SMB), and dynamics with the Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2, Danabasoglu et al., 2020)) and the Community Ice Sheet Model version 2 (CISM2, Lipscomb et al., 2019). This LGM simulation will be later used as starting point for coupled CESM2-CISM2 simulations of the last deglaciation.&#160;CESM2 is run at the nominal resolution used for IPCC-type projections (approx. 1 degree for all components). The model includes an advanced snow/firn and SMB calculation (van Kampenhout et al, 2019; Sellevold et al, 2019) the land component (CLM, cite) that has been evaluated and applied to the simulation of the future Greenland melt (van Kampenhout et al, 2020, Muntjewerf et al., 2020a,b, Sellevold & Vizcaino, 2020).&#160;Our analysis examines how the global, Arctic, and North Atlantic climate result in the simulated radiative and turbulent heat fluxes over the ice sheets, and the mass fluxes from precipitation, refreezing, runoff, and sublimation. We also examine the simulated ice streams in CISM2, which is run at 8 km under a higher-order approximation for ice flow.

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Ice sheet dynamics within an earth system model: downscaling, coupling and first results

Geoscientific Model Development ◽

10.5194/gmd-7-2003-2014 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 7 (5) ◽

pp. 2003-2013 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

D. Barbi ◽

G. Lohmann ◽

K. Grosfeld ◽

M. Thoma

Keyword(s):

Empirical Relationship ◽

Ice Sheets ◽

Ice Sheet ◽

Coupled Model ◽

Sensitivity Study ◽

Snow Accumulation ◽

Earth System Model ◽

System Model ◽

Earth System ◽

First Results

Abstract. We present first results from a coupled model setup, consisting of the state-of-the-art ice sheet model RIMBAY (Revised Ice Model Based on frAnk pattYn), and the community earth system model COSMOS. We show that special care has to be provided in order to ensure physical distributions of the forcings as well as numeric stability of the involved models. We demonstrate that a suitable statistical downscaling is crucial for ice sheet stability, especially for southern Greenland where surface temperatures are close to the melting point. The downscaling of net snow accumulation is based on an empirical relationship between surface slope and rainfall. The simulated ice sheet does not show dramatic loss of ice volume for pre-industrial conditions and is comparable with present-day ice orography. A sensitivity study with high CO2 level is used to demonstrate the effects of dynamic ice sheets onto climate compared to the standard setup with prescribed ice sheets.

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Regional Grid Refinement in an Earth System Model: Impacts on the Simulated Greenland Surface Mass Balance

10.5194/tc-2018-257 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Leonardus van Kampenhout ◽

Alan M. Rhoades ◽

Adam R. Herrington ◽

Colin M. Zarzycki ◽

Jan T. M. Lenaerts ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mass Balance ◽

Large Scale ◽

Climate Model ◽

Ice Sheet ◽

Greenland Ice Sheet ◽

Earth System Model ◽

System Model ◽

Surface Mass Balance ◽

Earth System ◽

Surface Mass

Abstract. In this study, the resolution dependence of the simulated Greenland Ice Sheet surface mass balance in the variable-resolution Community Earth System Model (VR-CESM) is investigated. Coupled atmosphere-land simulations are performed on three regionally refined grids over Greenland at 1° (~111 km), 0.5°(~55 km), and 0.25° (~28 km), maintaining a quasi-uniform resolution of 1° (~111 km) over the rest of the globe. The SMB in the accumulation zone is significantly improved compared to airborne radar and in-situ observations, with a general wetting at the margins and a drying in the interior GrIS. Total precipitation decreases with resolution, which is in line with best-available regional climate model results. In the ablation zone, VR-CESM starts developing a positive SMB bias in some locations. Potential driving mechanisms are proposed, amongst which are diversions in large scale circulation, changes in cloud cover, and changes in summer snowfall. Overall, our results demonstrate that VR-CESM is a viable new tool in the cryospheric sciences and can be used to dynamically downscale future scenarios and/or be interactively coupled to dynamical ice sheet models.

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Description of the Earth system model of intermediate complexity LOVECLIM version 1.2

Geoscientific Model Development ◽

10.5194/gmd-3-603-2010 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 603-633 ◽

Cited By ~ 203

Author(s):

H. Goosse ◽

V. Brovkin ◽

T. Fichefet ◽

R. Haarsma ◽

P. Huybrechts ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Carbon Cycle ◽

Sea Ice ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Ice Sheets ◽

Ice Sheet ◽

Earth System Model ◽

System Model ◽

Earth System ◽

Intermediate Complexity ◽

Low Latitudes

Abstract. The main characteristics of the new version 1.2 of the three-dimensional Earth system model of intermediate complexity LOVECLIM are briefly described. LOVECLIM 1.2 includes representations of the atmosphere, the ocean and sea ice, the land surface (including vegetation), the ice sheets, the icebergs and the carbon cycle. The atmospheric component is ECBilt2, a T21, 3-level quasi-geostrophic model. The ocean component is CLIO3, which consists of an ocean general circulation model coupled to a comprehensive thermodynamic-dynamic sea-ice model. Its horizontal resolution is of 3° by 3°, and there are 20 levels in the ocean. ECBilt-CLIO is coupled to VECODE, a vegetation model that simulates the dynamics of two main terrestrial plant functional types, trees and grasses, as well as desert. VECODE also simulates the evolution of the carbon cycle over land while the ocean carbon cycle is represented by LOCH, a comprehensive model that takes into account both the solubility and biological pumps. The ice sheet component AGISM is made up of a three-dimensional thermomechanical model of the ice sheet flow, a visco-elastic bedrock model and a model of the mass balance at the ice-atmosphere and ice-ocean interfaces. For both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, calculations are made on a 10 km by 10 km resolution grid with 31 sigma levels. LOVECLIM1.2 reproduces well the major characteristics of the observed climate both for present-day conditions and for key past periods such as the last millennium, the mid-Holocene and the Last Glacial Maximum. However, despite some improvements compared to earlier versions, some biases are still present in the model. The most serious ones are mainly located at low latitudes with an overestimation of the temperature there, a too symmetric distribution of precipitation between the two hemispheres, and an overestimation of precipitation and vegetation cover in the subtropics. In addition, the atmospheric circulation is too weak. The model also tends to underestimate the surface temperature changes (mainly at low latitudes) and to overestimate the ocean heat uptake observed over the last decades.

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