Development and implementation of a refined climate index forcing for paleo ice-sheet modeling applications

The contribution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) to sea-level rise under future scenarios remains uncertain. Simulations of the AIS covering past-climate periods provide valuable insights into its response to a range of climatological background states and transitions, as well as its past contributions to sea-level change. However, data to constrain the modelled ice-flow and the paleo-climate forcing is often lacking, leading to considerable uncertainties with respect to paleo ice sheet evolution. Here, we implement and test a framework to provide paleo-climate scenarios for continental scale ice sheet models. Our approach involves the use of an improved climate index based on ice-core records to translate paleo forcing snapshots from Earth System Models and regional models into transient paleo-climate scenarios, specifically to simulate the dynamics of the AIS throughout the last glaciation and deglaciation. Additionally, we refine paleo-accumulation scenarios by introducing a regionally-specific and temperature-dependant scaling of accumulation. Our study aims to enhance our understanding of AIS dynamics on glacial-interglacial time-scales and provide improved paleo-informed initializations for AIS projections.