What is the surface mass balance of Antarctica? An intercomparison of regional climate model estimates

Mottram, Ruth; Hansen, Nicolaj; Kittel, Christoph; van Wessem, J. Melchior; Agosta, Cécile; Amory, Charles; Boberg, Fredrik; van de Berg, Willem Jan; Fettweis, Xavier; Gossart, Alexandra; van Lipzig, Nicole P. M.; van Meijgaard, Erik; Orr, Andrew; Phillips, Tony; Webster, Stuart; Simonsen, Sebastian B.; Souverijns, Niels

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3751-2021

Articles | Volume 15, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3751-2021

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

Special issue:

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3751-2021

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

Articles | Volume 15, issue 8

Research article

|

17 Aug 2021

Research article |

| 17 Aug 2021

What is the surface mass balance of Antarctica? An intercomparison of regional climate model estimates

Ruth Mottram, Nicolaj Hansen, Christoph Kittel, J. Melchior van Wessem, Cécile Agosta, Charles Amory, Fredrik Boberg, Willem Jan van de Berg, Xavier Fettweis, Alexandra Gossart, Nicole P. M. van Lipzig, Erik van Meijgaard, Andrew Orr, Tony Phillips, Stuart Webster, Sebastian B. Simonsen, and Niels Souverijns

Data sets

Atmospheric climate model output of the COSMO-CLM2 regional climate model hindcast run over Antarctica (1987-2016) (Version COSMO-CLM version 5.0_clm6 - Community Land Model version 4.5) N. Souverijns, A. Gossart, M. Demuzere, J. T. M. Lenaerts, B. Medley, I. V. Gorodetskaya, S. Vanden Broucke, and N. P. M van Lipzig https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2539147

Atmospheric climate model output from the regional climate model HIRHAM5 forced with ERA-Interim for Antarctica R. Mottram and F. Boberg http://ensemblesrt3.dmi.dk/data/prudence/temp/RUM/HIRHAM/ANTARCTICA/ERAI/

Regional Surface Mass Balance of Antarctica (1981--2016) estimated from five high resolution Regional Climate Models (Version 1.0) [Data set] R. Mottram https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4590263

MARv3.10 outputs: What is the Surface Mass Balance of Antarctica? An Intercomparison of Regional Climate Model Estimates C. Kittel, C. Amory, C. Agosta, and X. Fettweis https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5195636

Short summary

We compare the calculated surface mass budget (SMB) of Antarctica in five different regional climate models. On average ~ 2000 Gt of snow accumulates annually, but different models vary by ~ 10 %, a difference equivalent to ± 0.5 mm of global sea level rise. All models reproduce observed weather, but there are large differences in regional patterns of snowfall, especially in areas with very few observations, giving greater uncertainty in Antarctic mass budget than previously identified.