LGM ice sheets simulated with a fully coupled ice sheet-climate model

Published: Feb 1, 2013 by The PISM Authors

We interactively couple the atmosphere-ocean-vegetation general circulation model ECHAM5/MPIOM/LPJ with the ice sheet model mPISM, a modified version of the Parallel Ice Sheet Model, without flux correction or anomaly maps in our models. We run ECHAM5 in T31 resolution and mPISM on a 20 km grid covering most of the northern hemisphere. For comparison, we also perform an experiment using the PMIP2 protocol and the ICE-5G ice sheet reconstruction (Peltier, 2004) instead of mPISM. In runs using pre-industrial as well as LGM boundary conditions, the shape of the ice sheets has a strong influence on the wind systems and thereby on the global climate. Our model shows ice sheet collapses as regular part of the ice sheet behavior. These pulses create strong signals in the ocean.