GlacierMIP3 global glacier mass change equilibration experiments - rationale and experimental design
- 1Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
- 2Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, Switzerland
- 3Laboratoire de Glaciologie, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
- 4Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- 5Institute of Geography, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
- 6MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
- 7Department of Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
- *A full list of authors appears at the end of the abstract
Glaciers outside the ice sheets are major contributors to today’s sea-level rise and are projected to remain so in the coming century. With the goal to better assess the future sea-level contribution from glaciers and to quantify related uncertainties, the Glacier Model Intercomparison Project (GlacierMIP) has set out to develop a series of coordinated experiments to be run as a community-wide effort.
The first two phases of the GlacierMIP have focused on the evolution of glaciers throughout the 21st century (Hock et al., 2019; Marzeion et al., 2020). In the third phase of GlacierMIP (GlacierMIP3 – equilibration), a new set of experiments has been designed to investigate the equilibration of glaciers under constant climate conditions. These experiments will allow us to answer the following fundamental questions:
1. What would be the equilibrium volume and area of all glaciers outside the ice sheets if global mean temperatures were to stabilize at present-day levels?
2. What would be the equilibrium volume and area of all glaciers outside the ice sheets if global mean temperatures were to stabilize at different temperature levels (e.g. +1.5, +2, relative to pre-industrial)?
3. For each of these global mean temperature stabilization scenarios, how much time would the glaciers need to reach their new equilibrium?
In this contribution, we present the experimental design of GlacierMIP3 and open up the floor for ideas and discussions about possible processing of these experiments. We also invite interested individuals and groups to join us to discuss the possibility of their model to be included in the newest phase of GlacierMIP.
References
GlacierMIP1: Hock, R., Bliss, A., Marzeion, B., Giesen, R.H., Hirabayashi, Y., Huss, M., Radic, V., Slangen, A.B.A. (2019), GlacierMIP – A model intercomparison of global-scale glacier mass-balance models and projections, Journal of Glaciology 65(251), 453-467, doi: 10.1017/jog.2019.22
GlacierMIP2: Marzeion, B., Hock, R., Anderson, B., Bliss, A., Champollion, N., Fujita, K., Huss, M., Immerzeel, W., Kraaijenbrink, P., Malles, J-H., Maussion, F., Radic, V., Rounce, D.R., Sakai, A., Shannon, S., van de Wal, R., Zekollari, H. (2020), Partitioning the Uncertainty of Ensemble Projections of Global Glacier Mass Change, Earth’s Future 8(7), e2019EF001470, doi: 10.1029/2019EF001470
GlacierMIP3 participants
How to cite: Zekollari, H., Hock, R., Marzeion, B., Maussion, F., and Schuster, L. and the GlacierMIP3 participants: GlacierMIP3 global glacier mass change equilibration experiments - rationale and experimental design, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-7775, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-7775, 2021.
