Some basic experiments with a vertically-integrated ice sheet model.

Abstract

A series of experiments has been carried out with various boundary conditions and parameterizations of the annual mass balance. It appears that the boundedness of continents and bedrock elevations creates a strongly nonlinear response of ice sheets to climatic variations. The behaviour of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets as computed with the numerical model is compared to that predicted by a perfect-plasticity model. It is found that those models give qualitatively the same results. Including bedrock sinking in a simple way reveals that this causes Northern Hemisphere ice sheets to disappear spontaneously within 15 000 years, after about 50 000 years of growth (initiated by a cold period).-from Author