Ice-age simulations with a caving ice-sheet model
Further extensions and results of a simple northern hemispheric ice-sheet model are described for the Quaternary ice ages. The basic model predicts ice thickness and bedrock deformation in a north-south cross section, with a prescribed snow-budget distribution shifted uniformly in space to represent the orbital perturbations. An ice calving parameterization crudely representing proglacial lakes or marine incursions can attack the ice whenever the tip drops below sea level. As in Pollard (1982a) the basic model produces a large approx. 100,000-yr response and agrees fairly well with the delta/sup 18/O deep-sea core records. Three extensions of the model are described: an alternative treatment of bedrock deformation, a more realistic ice-shelf model of ice calving, and a generalized parameterization for such features as the North Atlantic deglacial meltwater layer. Much the same ice-age simulations and agreement with the delta/sup 18/O records as with the original model are still obtained. The observed phase-correlation between the 100,000-yr cycles and eccentricity is examined. First, the model is shown to give a approx. 100,000-yr response to nearly any kind of higher-frequency forcing. Although over the last two million years the model phase is mainly controlled by the precessional modulation due to eccentricity, over just the last 600,000-yr the observed phase can also be simulated with eccentricity held constant. A definitive conclusion on the phase-control of the Quaternary ice ages is prevented by uncertainty in the deep-sea core time scales before approx. 600,000-yr B.P. In an appendix the model is applied to West Antarctica where unforced internal oscillations occur with periods of about 50,000-yr.
- OSTI ID:
- 6896715
- Resource Relation:
- Related Information: Climatic Research Institute Report No. 39
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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