A hybrid GCM paleo ice-sheet model, ANICE2.1 – HadCM3@Bristolv1.0: set up and benchmark experiments

Abstract

Fully coupled ice-sheet-climate modelling over 10,000 – 100,000-year time scales on high spatial and temporal resolution remains beyond the capability of current computational systems. Hybrid GCM-ice-sheet modelling offers a middle ground, balancing the need to accurately capture both long-term processes, in particular circulation driven changes in precipitation, and processes requiring a high spatial resolution like ablation. Here, we present and evaluate a model set-up that forces the ANICE 3D thermodynamic ice-sheet-shelf model calculating the four large continental ice-sheets (Antarctica, Greenland, North America and Eurasia), with pre-calculated output from two steady-state simulations with the HadCM3 general circulation model (GCM), using a so-called matrix method of coupling both components, where simulations with various levels of pCO2 and ice-sheet configuration are combined to form a time-continuous transient climate forcing consistent with the modelled ice-sheets. We address the difficulties in downscaling low-resolution GCM output to the higher-resolution grid of an ice-sheet model, and account for differences between GCM and ice-sheet model surface topography ranging from interglacial to glacial conditions. Although the approach presented here can be applied to a matrix with any number of GCM snapshots, we limited our experiments to a matrix of only two snapshots. As a benchmark experiment to assess the validity of this model set-up, we perform a simulation of the entire last glacial cycle, from 120 kyr ago to present-day. The simulated eustatic sea-level drop at the Last Glacial maximum (LGM) for the combined Antarctic, Greenland, Eurasian and North-American ice-sheets amounts to 100 m, in line with many other studies. The simulated ice-sheets at LGM agree well with the ICE-5G reconstruction and the more recent DATED-1 reconstruction in terms of total volume and geographical location of the ice sheets. Moreover, modelled benthic oxygen isotope abundance and the relative contributions from global ice volume and deep-water temperature agree well with available data, as do surface temperature histories for the Greenland and Antarctic ice-sheets. This model strategy can be used to create time-continuous ice-sheet distribution and sea-level reconstructions for geological periods up to several millions of years in duration, capturing climate model driven variations in the mass balance of the ice sheet.