A global, high-resolution data set of ice sheet topography, cavity geometry, and ocean bathymetry

Schaffer, Janin; Timmermann, Ralph; Arndt, Jan Erik; Kristensen, Steen Savstrup; Mayer, Christoph; Morlighem, Mathieu; Steinhage, Daniel

doi:10.5194/essd-8-543-2016

Cited by 181 publications

(222 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…The meshes have 47 vertical z‐levels with thickness of 10 m in the top 100 m; vertical resolution is gradually decreasing downward. Bathymetry is taken from the RTopo‐2 data set [ Schaffer et al ., ]. The time step in simulations REF and HIGH is set to 20 and 10 min, respectively.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atlantic Water in the Nordic Seas: Locally eddy-permitting ocean simulation in a global setup

Wekerle

Wang

Danilov

et al. 2017

J. Geophys. Res. Oceans

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Warm and salty Atlantic Water is transported by the Norwegian Atlantic Current through the Nordic Seas. A fraction of it enters the Arctic Ocean where it contributes significantly to its heat budget. Resolving the complex circulation structure in the Nordic Seas, in particular eddies, presents a numerical challenge in ocean models. Here, we present a hindcast experiment for the years 1969–2009 with a global configuration of the Finite Element Sea‐ice Ocean Model, employing a high‐resolution mesh in the Nordic Seas and Arctic Ocean (4.5 km). We show that substantial improvements can be achieved in the circulation structure, hydrography and eddy kinetic energy in the Nordic Seas compared with a coarse‐resolution reference run. A better represented Norwegian Atlantic Front Current (NwAFC) in the high‐resolution setup leads to a reduction of a strong negative temperature bias in the eastern Nordic Seas. The Atlantic Water inflow through the Iceland‐Faroe Ridge is found to be very sensitive to mesh resolution, and high resolution is required to adequately represent this inflow and the downstream NwAFC. With increased mesh resolution, the simulated ocean temperature is significantly improved at Barents Sea Opening (BSO), and the Atlantic Water volume transport in Fram Strait becomes much closer to observations in terms of both magnitude and variability. By using passive tracers, the origins of water masses at BSO and Fram Strait are identified. Our study also indicates that eddy‐resolving meshes are required to further improve the representation of dynamical processes in the region, in particular in Fram Strait.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atlantic Water in the Nordic Seas: Locally eddy-permitting ocean simulation in a global setup

Wekerle

Wang

Danilov

et al. 2017

J. Geophys. Res. Oceans

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“…We apply a minimum water column thickness of 50 m for all sub-ice cavities. An early version of RTopo-2 (Schaffer et al, 2016) has been used to derive ocean bathymetry and the ice-shelf draft and grounding lines for all cavities with fixed geometry. With the present-day ice-shelf configuration for FRIS, the FESOM mesh comprises a total of ≈ 2.6 × 10 6 nodes, 1.1 × 10 5 of which are surface nodes (where the term surface equally refers to open ocean and ice-shelf base).…”

Section: The Ocean Component: Fesommentioning

confidence: 99%

Response to Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf cavity warming in a coupled ocean–ice sheet model – Part 1: The ocean perspective

Timmermann¹,

Goeller²

2017

Ocean Sci.

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Abstract. The Regional Antarctic ice and Global Ocean (RAnGO) model has been developed to study the interaction between the world ocean and the Antarctic ice sheet. The coupled model is based on a global implementation of the Finite Element Sea-ice Ocean Model (FESOM) with a mesh refinement in the Southern Ocean, particularly in its marginal seas and in the sub-ice-shelf cavities. The cryosphere is represented by a regional setup of the ice flow model RIMBAY comprising the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf and the grounded ice in its catchment area up to the ice divides. At the base of the RIMBAY ice shelf, melt rates from FESOM's ice-shelf component are supplied. RIMBAY returns ice thickness and the position of the grounding line. The ocean model uses a pre-computed mesh to allow for an easy adjustment of the model domain to a varying cavity geometry.RAnGO simulations with a 20th-century climate forcing yield realistic basal melt rates and a quasi-stable grounding line position close to the presently observed state. In a centennial-scale warm-water-inflow scenario, the model suggests a substantial thinning of the ice shelf and a local retreat of the grounding line. The potentially negative feedback from ice-shelf thinning through a rising in situ freezing temperature is more than outweighed by the increasing water column thickness in the deepest parts of the cavity. Compared to a control simulation with fixed ice-shelf geometry, the coupled model thus yields a slightly stronger increase in ice-shelf basal melt rates.

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“…Both represent the presentday ice sheet, but in different spatial resolutions. The difference to the observed, high-resolution topography (Schaffer et al, 2016) is also shown in Fig. 2 …”

mentioning

confidence: 76%

Eemian Greenland Surface Mass Balance strongly sensitive to SMB model choice

Plach¹,

Nisancioglu²,

clec’h³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Abstract. Understanding the behavior of the Greenland ice sheet in a warmer climate, and particularly its surface mass balance (SMB), is important for assessing Greenland's potential contribution to future sea level rise. The Eemian interglacial, the most recent warmer-than-present period in Earth's history approximately 125,000 years ago, provides an analogue for a warm summer climate over Greenland. The Eemian is characterized by a positive Northern Hemisphere summer insolation anomaly, which introduces uncertainties in Eemian SMB when using positive degree day estimates. In this study, we use Eemian global 5 and regional climate simulations in combination with three types of SMB models -a simple positive degree day, an intermediate complexity, and a full surface energy balance model -to evaluate the importance of regional climate and model complexity for estimates of Greenland SMB. We find that all SMB models perform well under the relatively cool pre-industrial and late Eemian. For the relatively warm early Eemian, the differences between SMB models are large which is associated with the representation of insolation in the respective models. For all simulated time slices there is a systematic difference between 10 globally and regionally forced SMB models, due to the different representation of the regional climate over Greenland. We conclude that both the resolution of the simulated climate as well as the method used to estimate the SMB, are important for an accurate simulation of Greenland's SMB. Whether model resolution or SMB method is most important depends on the climate state and in particular the prevailing insolation pattern. We suggest that future Eemian climate model inter-comparison studies are combined with different SMB models to quantify Eemian SMB uncertainty estimates.

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A global, high-resolution data set of ice sheet topography, cavity geometry, and ocean bathymetry

Cited by 181 publications

References 46 publications

Atlantic Water in the Nordic Seas: Locally eddy-permitting ocean simulation in a global setup

Atlantic Water in the Nordic Seas: Locally eddy-permitting ocean simulation in a global setup

Response to Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf cavity warming in a coupled ocean–ice sheet model – Part 1: The ocean perspective

Eemian Greenland Surface Mass Balance strongly sensitive to SMB model choice

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