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Title: Effect of uncertainty in surface mass balance–elevation feedback on projections of the future sea level contribution of the Greenland ice sheet

Journal Article · · The Cryosphere (Online)
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [6]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [5];  [1];  [8]; ORCiD logo [7];  [4];  [4]
  1. Bristol Univ. (United Kingdom). Dept. of Geographical Sciences
  2. Univ. of Liege, (Belgium). Dept. of Geography, Lab. of Climatology
  3. Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l’Environnement, Saint-Martin-d’Hères (France); Inst. Univ. de France, Paris (France)
  4. Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l’Environnement, Saint-Martin-d’Hères (France)
  5. Vrije Univ., Brussel (Belgium). Earth System Sciences & Dept. Geografie
  6. Univ. of Reading, Reading (United Kingdom). NCAS-Climate, Dept. of Meteorology; The Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Change, Exeter (United Kingdom)
  7. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Fluid Dynamics and Solid Mechanics Group
  8. Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States). Dept. of Scientific Computing

We apply a new parameterisation of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) feedback between surface mass balance (SMB: the sum of surface accumulation and surface ablation) and surface elevation in the MAR regional climate model (Edwards et al., 2014) to projections of future climate change using five ice sheet models (ISMs). The MAR (Modèle Atmosphérique Régional: Fettweis, 2007) climate projections are for 2000–2199, forced by the ECHAM5 and HadCM3 global climate models (GCMs) under the SRES A1B emissions scenario. The additional sea level contribution due to the SMB–elevation feedback averaged over five ISM projections for ECHAM5 and three for HadCM3 is 4.3% (best estimate; 95% credibility interval 1.8–6.9%) at 2100, and 9.6% (best estimate; 95% credibility interval 3.6–16.0%) at 2200. In all results the elevation feedback is significantly positive, amplifying the GrIS sea level contribution relative to the MAR projections in which the ice sheet topography is fixed: the lower bounds of our 95% credibility intervals (CIs) for sea level contributions are larger than the "no feedback" case for all ISMs and GCMs. Our method is novel in sea level projections because we propagate three types of modelling uncertainty – GCM and ISM structural uncertainties, and elevation feedback parameterisation uncertainty – along the causal chain, from SRES scenario to sea level, within a coherent experimental design and statistical framework. The relative contributions to uncertainty depend on the timescale of interest. At 2100, the GCM uncertainty is largest, but by 2200 both the ISM and parameterisation uncertainties are larger. We also perform a perturbed parameter ensemble with one ISM to estimate the shape of the projected sea level probability distribution; our results indicate that the probability density is slightly skewed towards higher sea level contributions.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); Univ. of California, Oakland, CA (United States); UT-Battelle LLC/ORNL, Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1565255
Journal Information:
The Cryosphere (Online), Vol. 8, Issue 1; ISSN 1994-0424
Publisher:
European Geosciences UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 55 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (29)

Long‐term projections of sea‐level rise from ice sheets journal January 2020
A Review of Recent Updates of Sea-Level Projections at Global and Regional Scales journal June 2016
Ice flux evolution in fast flowing areas of the Greenland ice sheet over the 20th and 21st centuries journal March 2017
Dynamic simulations of Vatnajökull ice cap from 1980 to 2300 journal December 2019
Assessing Uncertainty in the Dynamical Ice Response to Ocean Warming in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica journal October 2019
Committed sea-level rise under the Paris Agreement and the legacy of delayed mitigation action journal February 2018
Quantifying climate feedbacks in polar regions journal May 2018
The effect of overshooting 1.5 °C global warming on the mass loss of the Greenland ice sheet journal January 2018
MPAS-Albany Land Ice (MALI): a variable-resolution ice sheet model for Earth system modeling using Voronoi grids journal January 2018
A rapidly converging initialisation method to simulate the present-day Greenland ice sheet using the GRISLI ice sheet model (version 1.3) journal January 2019
ATAT 1.1, the Automated Timing Accordance Tool for comparing ice-sheet model output with geochronological data journal January 2019
Comparison of adjoint and nudging methods to initialise ice sheet model basal conditions journal January 2016
Design and results of the ice sheet model initialisation experiments initMIP-Greenland: an ISMIP6 intercomparison journal January 2018
Simulation of the future sea level contribution of Greenland with a new glacial system model journal January 2018
Assessment of the Greenland ice sheet–atmosphere feedbacks for the next century with a regional atmospheric model coupled to an ice sheet model journal January 2019
Committed sea-level rise under the Paris Agreement and the legacy of delayed mitigation action text January 2018
The GRISLI ice sheet model (version 2.0): calibration and validation for multi-millennial changes of the Antarctic ice sheet journal January 2018
Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project (ISMIP6) contribution to CMIP6 journal January 2016
A Review of Recent Updates of Sea-Level Projections at Global and Regional Scales book May 2017
Recent Progress in Greenland Ice Sheet Modelling journal November 2017
An ice sheet model validation framework for the Greenland ice sheet journal January 2017
Interactive comment on “An ice sheet model validation framework for the Greenland ice sheet” by Stephen F. Price et al. journal August 2016
Probabilistic calibration of a Greenland Ice Sheet model using spatially resolved synthetic observations: toward projections of ice mass loss with uncertainties journal January 2014
Regional modeling of the Shirase drainage basin, East Antarctica: full Stokes vs. shallow ice dynamics journal September 2017
ISMIP6 Antarctica: a multi-model ensemble of the Antarctic ice sheet evolution over the 21st century journal January 2020
The future sea-level contribution of the Greenland ice sheet: a multi-model ensemble study of ISMIP6 journal January 2020
The GRISLI-LSCE contribution to the Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project for phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (ISMIP6) – Part 1: Projections of the Greenland ice sheet evolution by the end of the 21st century journal February 2021
Interactive comment on “Simulation of the future sea level contribution of Greenland with a new glacial system model” by Reinhard Calov et al. journal June 2018
Probabilistic parameterisation of the surface mass balance–elevation feedback in regional climate model simulations of the Greenland ice sheet journal January 2014

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