The firn meltwater Retention Model Intercomparison Project (RetMIP): evaluation of nine firn models at four weather station sites on the Greenland ice sheet

Vandecrux, Baptiste; Mottram, Ruth; Langen, Peter L.; Fausto, Robert S.; Olesen, Martin; Stevens, C. Max; Verjans, Vincent; Leeson, Amber; Ligtenberg, Stefan; Kuipers Munneke, Peter; Marchenko, Sergey; van Pelt, Ward; Meyer, Colin R.; Simonsen, Sebastian B.; Heilig, Achim; Samimi, Samira; Marshall, Shawn; Machguth, Horst; MacFerrin, Michael; Niwano, Masashi; Miller, Olivia; Voss, Clifford I.; Box, Jason E.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3785-2020

Articles | Volume 14, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3785-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3785-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 14, issue 11

Research article

|

06 Nov 2020

Research article |

| 06 Nov 2020

The firn meltwater Retention Model Intercomparison Project (RetMIP): evaluation of nine firn models at four weather station sites on the Greenland ice sheet

Baptiste Vandecrux, Ruth Mottram, Peter L. Langen, Robert S. Fausto, Martin Olesen, C. Max Stevens, Vincent Verjans, Amber Leeson, Stefan Ligtenberg, Peter Kuipers Munneke, Sergey Marchenko, Ward van Pelt, Colin R. Meyer, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Achim Heilig, Samira Samimi, Shawn Marshall, Horst Machguth, Michael MacFerrin, Masashi Niwano, Olivia Miller, Clifford I. Voss, and Jason E. Box

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3785-2020-supplement

Data sets

The firn meltwater retention model intercomparison project (RetMIP): forcing data Baptiste Vandecrux https://doi.org/10.22008/FK2/GZ3CSN

The firn meltwater retention model intercomparison project (RetMIP): model outputs Baptiste Vandecrux, Peter L. Langen, Peter Kuipers Munneke, Sebastian Simonsen, Vincent Verjans, C. Max Stevens, Sergey Marchenko, Ward van Pelt, and Colin Meyer https://doi.org/10.22008/FK2/CVPUJL

RetMIP plotting scripts (Version v0) Baptiste Vandecrux https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4172094

Model code and software

GEUS surface energy balance and firn model (version 0.2) Baptiste Vandecrux https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4178986

Short summary

In the vast interior of the Greenland ice sheet, snow accumulates into a thick and porous layer called firn. Each summer, the firn retains part of the meltwater generated at the surface and buffers sea-level rise. In this study, we compare nine firn models traditionally used to quantify this retention at four sites and evaluate their performance against a set of in situ observations. We highlight limitations of certain model designs and give perspectives for future model development.