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Concept
Ice-sheet model
Summary
In climate modelling, Ice-sheet models use numerical methods to simulate the evolution, dynamics and thermodynamics of ice sheets, such as the Greenland ice sheet, the Antarctic ice sheet or the large ice sheets on the northern hemisphere during the last glacial period. They are used for a variety of purposes, from studies of the glaciation of Earth over glacial–interglacial cycles in the past to projections of ice-sheet decay under future global warming conditions.
Beginning in the mid-18th Century, investigation into ice sheet behavior began. Since the Journal of Glaciology's founding, physicists have been publishing glacial mechanics.
The first 3-D model was applied to the Barnes Ice Cap. In 1988, the first thermodynamically coupled model incorporating ice-shelves, sheet/shelf transition, membrane stress gradients, isotatic bed adjustment and basal sliding using more advanced numerical techniques was developed and applied to the Antarctic ice sheet. This model had a resolution of 40 km and 10 vertical layers.
When the first IPCC assessment report came out in 1990, ice sheets were not an active part of the climate system model, their evolution was based on a correlation between global temperature and surface mass balance. When the second IPCC assessment report came out in 1996, the beginning of both 2D and 3D modelling was shown with ice sheets. The 1990s heralded several more computational models, bringing with it the European Ice Sheet Modelling Initiative (EISMINT). The EISMINT produced several workshops throughout the 1990s of an international collaboration, comparing most models of Greenland, Antarctic, ice-shelf, thermomechanical and grounding-line.
The 2000s included integrating first-order approximation of full Stokes Dynamics into an ice-sheet model. The fourth IPCC assessment report showed ice-sheet models with projections of rapid dynamical responses in the ice, which led to evidence of significant ice loss.
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Sea level rise
Between 1901 and 2018, the average global sea level rose by , or an average of 1–2 mm per year. This rate accelerated to 4.62 mm/yr for the decade 2013–2022. Climate change due to human activities is the main cause. Between 1993 and 2018, thermal expansion of water accounted for 42% of sea level rise. Melting temperate glaciers accounted for 21%, with Greenland accounting for 15% and Antarctica 8%. Sea level rise lags changes in the Earth's temperature.
Ice age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and greenhouse periods, during which there are no glaciers on the planet. Earth is currently in the ice age called Quaternary glaciation. Individual pulses of cold climate within an ice age are termed glacial periods (or, alternatively, glacials, glaciations, glacial stages, stadials, stades, or colloquially, ice ages), and intermittent warm periods within an ice age are called interglacials or interstadials.
Antarctic ice sheet
The Antarctic ice sheet is one of the two polar ice caps of Earth. It covers about 98% of the Antarctic continent and is the largest single mass of ice on Earth, with an average thickness of over 2 kilometers. Separate to the Antarctic sea ice it covers an area of almost and contains of ice. A cubic kilometer of ice weighs approximately 0.92 metric gigatonnes, meaning that the ice sheet weighs about 24,380,000 gigatonnes. It holds approximately 61% of all fresh water on Earth, equivalent to about 58 meters of sea level rise if all the ice were above sea level.