Identification

Title

Arctic warming induced by the Laurentide Ice Sheet topography

Abstract

It is well known that ice sheet-climate feedbacks are essential for realistically simulating the spatiotemporal evolution of continental ice sheets over glacial-interglacial cycles. However, many of these feedbacks are dependent on the ice sheet thickness, which is poorly constrained by proxy data records. For example, height estimates of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) topography at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; similar to 21 000 years ago) vary by more than 1 km among different ice sheet reconstructions. In order to better constrain the LIS elevation it is therefore important to understand how the mean climate is influenced by elevation discrepancies of this magnitude. Here we use an atmospheric circulation model coupled to a slab-ocean model to analyze the LGM surface temperature response to a broad range of LIS elevations (from 0 to over 4 km). We find that raising the LIS topography induces a widespread surface warming in the Arctic region, amounting to approximately 1.5 degrees C per km of elevation increase, or about 6.5 degrees C for the highest LIS. The warming is attributed to an increased poleward energy flux by atmospheric stationary waves, amplified by surface albedo and water vapor feedbacks, which account for about two-thirds of the total temperature response. These results suggest a strong feedback between continental-scale ice sheets and the Arctic temperatures that may help constrain LIS elevation estimates for the LGM and explain differences in ice distribution between the LGM and earlier glacial periods.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7vt1vwj

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2018-06-22T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact