The waxing and waning of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets

Abstract

Past modelling studies have shown that the energy balance of the ice-sheet surface is of primary importance in representing the 100 000 year glacial cycle. In particular, modelling of the net mass-balance function is an important part of coupled ice-sheet/climate models. We conduct a series of palaeoclimatic simulations with a vertically integrated ice-flow model coupled to the two-dimensional statistical-dynamical LLN (Louvain-la-Neuve) climate model. The models are coupled through a land-surface model which computes seasonal cycles of surface temperature and precipitation at the real altitude of the surface and evaluates the annual snow and/or ice-mass budget. The present-day climate of the Northern Hemisphere, the Greenland mass balance and the snowfield characteristics are quite well represented despite the relative simplicity of the model. Total ice-volume and sea-level variations during the last glacial cycle are well simulated. This suggests that the physical mechanisms included in the models are sufficient to explain the most striking features of the ice-age cycle. Introducing an improved and more detailed topography improves the simulation of the total ice volume but fails to correct inadequacies in the simulated ice distribution on the surface of the Earth.