Greenland climate simulations show high Eemian surface melt which could explain reduced total air content in ice cores

Plach, Andreas; Vinther, Bo M.; Nisancioglu, Kerim H.; Vudayagiri, Sindhu; Blunier, Thomas

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-317-2021

Articles | Volume 17, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-317-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-317-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 1

Research article

| Highlight paper

|

29 Jan 2021

Research article | Highlight paper |

| 29 Jan 2021

Greenland climate simulations show high Eemian surface melt which could explain reduced total air content in ice cores

Andreas Plach, Bo M. Vinther, Kerim H. Nisancioglu, Sindhu Vudayagiri, and Thomas Blunier

Data sets

MEaSUREs Greenland Surface Melt Daily 25 km EASE-Grid 2.0, Version 1, Greenland subset T. L. Mote https://doi.org/10.5067/MEASURES/CRYOSPHERE/nsidc-0533.001

Melting trends over the Greenland ice sheet (19582009) from spaceborne microwave data and regional climate models X. Fettweis, M. Tedesco, M. van den Broeke, M. and J. Ettema https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-5-359-2011

Eemian interglacial reconstructed from a Greenland folded ice core NEEM community members https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11789

GRIP total air content D. Raynaud https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.55086

Reconstructing the last interglacial at Summit, Greenland: Insights from GISP2 A. M. Yau, M. L. Bender, A. Robinson, and E. J. Brook https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1524766113

Model code and software

MAR code CNRS http://mar.cnrs.fr/

Short summary

In light of recent large-scale melting of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS), e.g., in the summer of 2012 several days with surface melt on the entire ice sheet (including elevations above 3000 m), we use computer simulations to estimate the amount of melt during a warmer-than-present period of the past. Our simulations show more extensive melt than today. This is important for the interpretation of ice cores which are used to reconstruct the evolution of the ice sheet and the climate.