Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project (ISMIP6) contribution to CMIP6

Abstract

Abstract. Reducing the uncertainty in the past, present, and future contribution of ice sheets to sea-level change requires a coordinated effort between the climate and glaciology communities. The Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project for CMIP6 (ISMIP6) is the primary activity within the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project -phase 6 (CMIP6) focusing on the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. In this paper, we describe the framework for ISMIP6 and its relationship with other activities within CMIP6. The ISMIP6 experimental design relies on CMIP6 climate models and includes, for the first time within CMIP, coupled ice-sheet-climate models as well as standalone ice-sheet models. To facilitate analysis of the multi-model ensemble and to generate a set of standard climate inputs for standalone ice-sheet models, ISMIP6 defines a protocol for all variables related to ice sheets. ISMIP6 will provide a basis for investigating the feedbacks, impacts, and sea-level changes associated with dynamic ice sheets and for quantifying the uncertainty in ice-sheet-sourced global sea-level change.

The influence of atmospheric grid resolution in a climate model-forced ice sheet simulation

“…(1) and (2) in Liakka et al (2016)). The distribution of liquid and solid precipitation is also assumed to vary with temperature: 100 % solid precipitation falls if the monthly mean surface air temperature is below −10 • C, and 100 % liquid if it is higher than 7 • C. The distribution changes linearly for intermediate temperatures (Marsiat, 1994). The surface mass balance (SMB) is calcu- lated from the climatological monthly-mean temperature and precipitation fields, which are (bilinearly) interpolated from the atmospheric (LGM) simulations, using the above lapse rate to correct for elevation biases due to different grids and horizontal resolutions.…”

“…Experiments with coupled climate-ice sheet models have become increasingly popular in recent years, much thanks to coordinated international modeling initiatives such as the "Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project" (ISMIP6) (Nowicki et al, 2016) and the "Pliocene Ice Sheet Modelling Intercomparison Project" (PLISMIP) (Dolan et al, 2012). These types of experiments are however challenging, as ice sheets have a high thermal inertia that makes their response time greater than almost all other components of the climate system -the timescale depends on the application but typically ranges from 10 3 to 10 5 years.…”

The GRISLI ice sheet model (version 2.0): calibration and validation for multi-millennial changes of the Antarctic ice sheet

“…with BM B InitMIP-Antarctica (Nowicki et al, 2016), with slight modifications due to change in resolution.…”

“…This approach has been followed to participate in the first phase of the recent ice sheet model intercomparison project (ISMIP6, Nowicki et al, 2016) for both the Greenland (Goelzer et al, 2017) and Antarctic ice sheets. In this context, GRISLI achieves to provide sea level rise projections by the end of the century in line with the results from more complex model (Edwards et al, 2014;Goelzer et al, 2017).…”

A JavaScript API for the Ice Sheet System Model (ISSM) 4.11: towards an online interactive model for the cryosphere community

“…This comprises model setup, data interpolation onto an ISSM compatible mesh, solution parameterizations, and initialization strategies, among other things. This simulation, part of the Ice Sheet Modeling Intercomparison Project 6 (ISMIP-6; Nowicki et al, 2016) that accounts for ice sheets in CMIP-6, is a fairly representative example of some of the most advanced simulations that can be run with an ice sheet model (ISM). Such simulations cannot easily be systematized and need to be tailored specifically for each ice sheet they are applied to.…”