Influence of temperature fluctuations on equilibrium <br class="break"/>ice sheet volume

Mikkelsen, Troels Bøgeholm; Grinsted, Aslak; Ditlevsen, Peter

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-39-2018

Articles | Volume 12, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-39-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-39-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 1

Research article

|

08 Jan 2018

Research article |

| 08 Jan 2018

Influence of temperature fluctuations on equilibrium
ice sheet volume

Troels Bøgeholm Mikkelsen, Aslak Grinsted, and Peter Ditlevsen

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-39-2018-supplement

Model code and software

bogeholm/ice-sheets-fluctuating-temp: Influence of temperature fluctuations on equilibrium ice sheet volume T. B. Mikkelsen https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1134919

Short summary

The atmospheric temperature increase poses a real risk of ice sheets collapsing. We show that this risk might have been underestimated since variations in temperature will move the ice sheets to the tipping point of destabilization. We show this by using a simple computer model of a large ice sheet and investigate what happens if the temperature varies from year to year. The total volume of the ice sheet decreases because a cold year followed by an equally warm year do not cancel out.