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SPM1.11

Firn Model Inter-Comparison (public)
Mon, 08 Apr, 17:30–20:00  / Room Y3

At University of Washington we are developing a modular community firn-evolution model funded by the ICEICS PIRE grant at Oregon State (http://iceics.science.oregonstate.edu/).
Because we want to incorporate the best ideas and physical descriptions of firn from existing models, we are organizing a firn-densification model inter-comparison project. We hope that you will join the project.

What: Numerous glaciological research questions involve physical processes in firn; however, we are focusing on cold firn for this project, which is targeted at understanding firn gas (See link above).
We will compare new and existing firn-densification models with a standard suite of boundary conditions, including temperature and accumulation rate. Model developers are asked to run their model and provide output to be included in the suite of results. Model-comparison tests will incorporate synthetic and observation-based boundary conditions. We hope that a community model-comparison paper will result from all the contributions.

Why: We wish to compare the response behavior of current firn models to pertinent questions. For example, what is the variance among current models in response to temperature perturbations? In response to accumulation-rate perturbations? How well can different models are replicate observations? Our goal is to determine the most-pertinent physics for a transient firn model under a wide rage of climate conditions. This will guide future improvements in firn modeling.

All are welcome to contribute results and modeling expertise.