Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 15 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (986 download)
Book Synopsis Present-day and Future Antarctic Ice Sheet Climate and Surface Mass Balance in the Community Earth System Model by :
Download or read book Present-day and Future Antarctic Ice Sheet Climate and Surface Mass Balance in the Community Earth System Model written by and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 15 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here, we present climate and surface mass balance (SMB) of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) as simulated by the global, coupled ocean-atmosphere-land Community Earth System Model (CESM) with a horizontal resolution of ~1° in the past, present and future (1850-2100). CESM correctly simulates present-day Antarctic sea ice extent, large-scale atmospheric circulation and near-surface climate, but fails to simulate the recent expansion of Antarctic sea ice. The present-day Antarctic ice sheet SMB equals 2280 ± 131Gtyear-1, which concurs with existing independent estimates of AIS SMB. When forced by two CMIP5 climate change scenarios (high mitigation scenario RCP2.6 and high-emission scenario RCP8.5), CESM projects an increase of Antarctic ice sheet SMB of about 70 Gtyear-1 per degree warming. This increase is driven by enhanced snowfall, which is partially counteracted by more surface melt and runoff along the ice sheet's edges. This intensifying hydrological cycle is predominantly driven by atmospheric warming, which increases (1) the moisture-carrying capacity of the atmosphere, (2) oceanic source region evaporation, and (3) summer AIS cloud liquid water content.