The role of regional feedbacks in glacial inception on Baffin Island: the interaction of ice flow and meteorology
Over the past 0.8 million years, 100 kyr ice ages have dominated Earth's climate with geological evidence suggesting the last glacial inception began in the mountains of Baffin Island. Currently, state-of-the-art global climate models (GCMs) have difficulty simulating glacial inception, possibl...
| Principais autores: | , , |
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| Outros Autores: | |
| Formato: | Artigo |
| Idioma: | English |
| Publicado em: |
Copernicus GmbH
2020
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| Acesso em linha: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125136 |
| _version_ | 1826190196721319936 |
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| author | Birch, Leah Cronin, Timothy Wallace Tziperman, Eli |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Birch, Leah Cronin, Timothy Wallace Tziperman, Eli |
| author_sort | Birch, Leah |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Over the past 0.8 million years, 100 kyr ice ages have dominated Earth's climate with geological evidence suggesting the last glacial inception began in the mountains of Baffin Island. Currently, state-of-the-art global climate models (GCMs) have difficulty simulating glacial inception, possibly due in part to their coarse horizontal resolution and the neglect of ice flow dynamics in some models. We attempt to address the role of regional feedbacks in the initial inception problem on Baffin Island by asynchronously coupling the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model,
configured as a high-resolution inner domain over Baffin and an outer domain incorporating much of North America, to an ice flow model using the shallow ice approximation. The mass balance is calculated from WRF simulations and used to drive the ice model, which updates the ice extent and elevation, that then serve as inputs to the next WRF run. We drive the regional WRF configuration using atmospheric boundary conditions from 1986 that correspond to a relatively cold summer, and with 115 kya insolation. Initially, ice accumulates on mountain glaciers, driving downslope ice flow which expands the size of the ice caps. However, continued iterations of the atmosphere and ice models reveal a stagnation of the ice sheet on Baffin Island, driven by melting due to warmer temperatures at the margins of the ice caps. This warming is caused by changes in the regional circulation that are forced by elevation changes due to the ice growth. A stabilizing feedback] between ice elevation and atmospheric circulation thus prevents full inception from occurring. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:36:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/125136 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:36:33Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Copernicus GmbH |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1251362022-09-30T09:56:36Z The role of regional feedbacks in glacial inception on Baffin Island: the interaction of ice flow and meteorology Birch, Leah Cronin, Timothy Wallace Tziperman, Eli Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Over the past 0.8 million years, 100 kyr ice ages have dominated Earth's climate with geological evidence suggesting the last glacial inception began in the mountains of Baffin Island. Currently, state-of-the-art global climate models (GCMs) have difficulty simulating glacial inception, possibly due in part to their coarse horizontal resolution and the neglect of ice flow dynamics in some models. We attempt to address the role of regional feedbacks in the initial inception problem on Baffin Island by asynchronously coupling the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model, configured as a high-resolution inner domain over Baffin and an outer domain incorporating much of North America, to an ice flow model using the shallow ice approximation. The mass balance is calculated from WRF simulations and used to drive the ice model, which updates the ice extent and elevation, that then serve as inputs to the next WRF run. We drive the regional WRF configuration using atmospheric boundary conditions from 1986 that correspond to a relatively cold summer, and with 115 kya insolation. Initially, ice accumulates on mountain glaciers, driving downslope ice flow which expands the size of the ice caps. However, continued iterations of the atmosphere and ice models reveal a stagnation of the ice sheet on Baffin Island, driven by melting due to warmer temperatures at the margins of the ice caps. This warming is caused by changes in the regional circulation that are forced by elevation changes due to the ice growth. A stabilizing feedback] between ice elevation and atmospheric circulation thus prevents full inception from occurring. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant OCE-1602864) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AGS-1740533) 2020-05-08T14:53:34Z 2020-05-08T14:53:34Z 2018-10 2018-06 2020-04-15T17:41:24Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1814-9332 1814-9324 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125136 Birch, Leah, et al. “The Role of Regional Feedbacks in Glacial Inception on Baffin Island: The Interaction of Ice Flow and Meteorology.” Climate of the Past 14, 10 (October 2018): 1441–62 en http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/CP-14-1441-2018 Climate of the Past Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf Copernicus GmbH Copernicus Publications |
| spellingShingle | Birch, Leah Cronin, Timothy Wallace Tziperman, Eli The role of regional feedbacks in glacial inception on Baffin Island: the interaction of ice flow and meteorology |
| title | The role of regional feedbacks in glacial inception on Baffin Island: the interaction of ice flow and meteorology |
| title_full | The role of regional feedbacks in glacial inception on Baffin Island: the interaction of ice flow and meteorology |
| title_fullStr | The role of regional feedbacks in glacial inception on Baffin Island: the interaction of ice flow and meteorology |
| title_full_unstemmed | The role of regional feedbacks in glacial inception on Baffin Island: the interaction of ice flow and meteorology |
| title_short | The role of regional feedbacks in glacial inception on Baffin Island: the interaction of ice flow and meteorology |
| title_sort | role of regional feedbacks in glacial inception on baffin island the interaction of ice flow and meteorology |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125136 |
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