Articles | Volume 9, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1579-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1579-2015
Research article
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18 Aug 2015
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 18 Aug 2015

Century-scale simulations of the response of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to a warming climate

S. L. Cornford, D. F. Martin, A. J. Payne, E. G. Ng, A. M. Le Brocq, R. M. Gladstone, T. L. Edwards, S. R. Shannon, C. Agosta, M. R. van den Broeke, H. H. Hellmer, G. Krinner, S. R. M. Ligtenberg, R. Timmermann, and D. G. Vaughan

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Cited articles

Agosta, C., Favier, V., Krinner, G., Gallée, H., Fettweis, X., and Genthon, C.: High-resolution modelling of the Antarctic surface mass balance, application for the twentieth, twenty first and twenty second centuries, Clim. Dynam., 41, 3247–3260, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1903-9, 2013.
Arthern, R. J. and Gudmundsson, G. H.: Initialization of ice-sheet forecasts viewed as an inverse Robin problem, J. Glaciol., 56, 527–533, https://doi.org/10.3189/002214310792447699, 2010.
Borstad, C. P., Khazendar, A., Larour, E., Morlighem, M., Rignot, E., Schodlok, M. P., and Seroussi, H.: A damage mechanics assessment of the Larsen B ice shelf prior to collapse: toward a physically-based calving law: a calving law based on damage mechanics, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L18502, https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GL053317, 2012.
Connolley, W. M. and Bracegirdle, T. J.: An Antarctic assessment of IPCC AR4 coupled models, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L22505, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL031648, 2007.
Cornford, S. L., Martin, D. F., Graves, D. T., Ranken, D. F., Le Brocq, A. M., Gladstone, R. M., Payne, A. J., Ng, E. G., and Lipscomb, W. H.: Adaptive mesh, finite volume modeling of marine ice sheets, J. Comput. Phys., 232, 529–549, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2012.08.037, 2013.
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Short summary
We used a high-resolution ice sheet model capable of resolving grounding line dynamics (BISICLES) to compute responses of the major West Antarctic ice streams to projections of ocean and atmospheric warming. This is computationally demanding, and although other groups have considered parts of West Antarctica, we think this is the first calculation for the whole region at the sub-kilometer resolution that we show is required.
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