Glacial Inception on Baffin Island: The Role of Insolation, Meteorology, and Topography
Name
jcli-d-16-0576.1.pdf
Size
3 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
3ff099e79d2c115dced22722d9db5d10
Author(s)
Birch, Leah
Tziperman, Eli
Cronin, Timothy Wallace
Date Issued
May 2017
Journal
Journal of Climate
Publisher
American Meteorological Society
Citation
Birch, Leah et al. “Glacial Inception on Baffin Island: The Role of Insolation, Meteorology, and Topography.” Journal of Climate 30, 11 (June 2017): 4047–4064 © 2017 American Meteorological Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Geologic evidence suggests that the last glacial inception (115 kya) occurred within the mountains of Baffin Island. Global climate models (GCMs) have difficulty simulating this climate transition, likely because of their coarse horizontal resolution that smooths topography and necessitates the use of cumulus parameterizations. A regional configuration of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model is used to simulate the small-scale topographic and cloud processes neglected by GCMs, and the sensitivity of the region to Milankovitch forcing, topography, and meteorology is tested. It is found that ice growth is possible with 115-kya insolation, realistic topography, and slightly colder-than-average meteorology, represented by specific years within the past three decades. The simulation with low GCM-like topography shows a negative surface mass balance, even with the relevant orbital parameter configuration, demonstrating the criticality of realistic topography. The downslope growth of the ice sheets is studied by looking at the sensitivity of the mass balance to initial snow cover prescribed beyond that of the present day. It is found that the snow-albedo feedback, via its effects on the mass balance, allows such larger snow cover to persist. Implications for GCM studies of glacial inception are discussed. Keywords: Climate change; Climate variability; Glaciation; Paleoclimate
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0576.1
