Articles | Volume 20, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-6453-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-6453-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
11 Nov 2026
Research article |
| 11 Nov 2026
| 11 Nov 2026
The implementation and effectiveness of Calving Algorithms in numerical ice models (CalvingMIP)
Department of Geography, Swansea University, Swansea, UK
Frank Pattyn
Laboratoire de Glaciologie, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
Daniel Abele
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven/Potsdam, Germany
Institute of Software Technology, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
School of Computation, Information and Technology, Technical University Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany
Torsten Albrecht
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Potsdam, Germany
Department of Integrative Earth System Science, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Jena, Germany
Jorge Alvarez-Solas
Instituto de Geociencias, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Jowan M. Barnes
School of Geography and Natural Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Tijn J. Berends
Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht (IMAU), Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
Jorge A. Bernales
Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), Copenhagen, Denmark
Javier Blasco
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven/Potsdam, Germany
Gong Cheng
Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
Youngmin Choi
Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Stephen L. Cornford
School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
Cruz Garcia-Molina
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, Grenoble INP, INRAE, IGE, 38000 Grenoble, France
Fabien Gillet-Chaulet
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, Grenoble INP, INRAE, IGE, 38000 Grenoble, France
G. Hilmar Gudmundsson
School of Geography and Natural Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Angelika Humbert
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven/Potsdam, Germany
Faculty of Geosciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Gunter R. Leguy
Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory, NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA
William H. Lipscomb
Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory, NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA
Marisa Montoya
Instituto de Geociencias, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Departamento de Física de la Tierra y Astrofísica, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Daniel Moreno-Parada
Laboratoire de Glaciologie, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
Mathieu Morlighem
Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
Tyler Pelle
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Alexander Robinson
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven/Potsdam, Germany
Martin Rückamp
Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Munich, Germany
Hélène Seroussi
Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
Yanmei Tian
State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Hazards Risk Governance (ESPHR), Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Luisa Wagner
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven/Potsdam, Germany
Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Munich, Germany
Roderick S. W. van de Wal
Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht (IMAU), Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
Department of Physical Geography, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
Liyun Zhao
State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Hazards Risk Governance (ESPHR), Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Thomas Zwinger
CSC – IT Center for Science, Espoo, Finland
Data sets
CalvingMIP – Calving algorithm simulations James Jordan et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20041205
Short summary
Ice calving is a recent inclusion in ice sheet models and there has not been a systematic test of how well it has been implemented. We show that models can accurately represent a given rate of ice calving, properties at the ice front evolve smoothly during calving, and that there are no consistent differences in ice behaviour between various approaches to representing calving in numerical ice models. This gives us confidence in their ability for use in sea level rise prediction simulations.
Ice calving is a recent inclusion in ice sheet models and there has not been a systematic test...
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