Impacts of the PMIP4 ice sheets on Northern Hemisphere climate during the last glacial period

Abstract

This study comprehensively investigates the impacts on the mean state of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) climate, particularly atmospheric circulation over the Northern Hemisphere associated with the different Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project Phase 4 (PMIP4) ice sheets, ICE-6G_C, GLAC-1D, and PMIP3, using the coupled atmosphere–ocean–vegetation model HadCM3B-M2.1aD. The simulation with PMIP3 ice sheets is colder than either of the two PMIP4 ice sheets mainly because of the larger area of land ice impacting surface albedo. However, changes in the circulation impact sea ice cover resulting in the GLAC-1D simulation being almost as cold. Although the PMIP4 ice sheets also induce different responses in the atmospheric circulation, some common features are identified in all simulations, including strengthening and lateral expansion of the winter upper-level North Atlantic jet with a large southwest-northeast tilt and summertime North Pacific jet, a southward shift of the wintertime Icelandic Low and Azores High and the summertime Pacific High. Compared to terrestrial-ocean reconstructions, all the PMIP4 ice sheet experiments overestimate the LGM cooling and wet conditions. The simulation with the ICE-6G_C ice sheet provides the closest reproduction of LGM climate, while the simulation with the PMIP3 ice sheet shows the coldest LGM climate state. Our study shows that in order to "benchmark" the ability of climate models to realistically simulate the LGM climate, we need to have reliable boundary conditions to ensure that any model biases are caused by model limitations rather than uncertainty about the LGM boundary conditions.