Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Greenland Ice Sheet w/ + 5 C



Otto-Bliesner (CCR), collaborating with Jonathan Overpeck (University Arizona), Shawn Marshall (University of Calgary), and Giff Miller (University of Colorado), studied the sensitivity of the Arctic climate and the Greenland Ice Sheet to summer warming at the beginning of the Last Interglacial (130,000 years before present) associated with late spring-early summer insolation anomalies associated with Milankovitch orbital forcing. This study used CCSM2 simulations in combination with a Greenland Ice Sheet model and terrestrial, marine, and ice core proxy records. CCSM2 seasonally warms the Arctic by up to 5°C, and forced with CCSM2 predicted surface temperature and precipitation changes, the Greenland Ice Sheet shrinks to half its present volume in 3500 years. Vegetation and ice sheet feedbacks still need to be incorporated and should indicate enhanced sensitivity.

The model suggested that would be the end result of 3500 years of melting. Below might hint that the ice sheet might be melting a tad faster...


The first photo is via UCAR and the latter from NASA.

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