Articles | Volume 20, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-2589-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-2589-2026
Research article
 | 
30 Apr 2026
Research article |  | 30 Apr 2026

The Eurasian and North American ice sheets at the Last and Penultimate glacial maxima: coupled atmosphere–ice sheet model sensitivity and calibration

Violet L. Patterson, Lauren J. Gregoire, Ruza F. Ivanovic, Niall Gandy, Stephen Cornford, Jonathan Owen, Sam Sherriff-Tadano, and Robin S. Smith

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Contrasting the Penultimate Glacial Maximum and the Last Glacial Maximum (140 and 21 ka) using coupled climate–ice sheet modelling
Violet L. Patterson, Lauren J. Gregoire, Ruza F. Ivanovic, Niall Gandy, Jonathan Owen, Robin S. Smith, Oliver G. Pollard, Lachlan C. Astfalck, and Paul J. Valdes
Clim. Past, 20, 2191–2218, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-2191-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-2191-2024, 2024
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Cited articles

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Alder, J. R. and Hostetler, S. W.: Applying the Community Ice Sheet Model to evaluate PMIP3 LGM climatologies over the North American ice sheets, Clim. Dynam., 53, 2807–2824, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-019-04663-x, 2019. a
Alvarez-Solas, J., Banderas, R., Robinson, A., and Montoya, M.: Ocean-driven millennial-scale variability of the Eurasian ice sheet during the last glacial period simulated with a hybrid ice-sheet–shelf model, Clim. Past, 15, 957–979, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-957-2019, 2019. a, b, c
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Short summary
Simulations of the last two glacial periods are ran using a computer model in which the atmosphere and ice sheets interact. The model is able to produce ice sheet volumes, extents and dynamics in good agreement with data. Sensitivity analysis is undertaken and shows the Northern Hemisphere ice sheet size is particularly sensitive to the albedo of the ice in the model but the different ice sheets display different sensitivities to other processes.
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