GC10-Pliocene-42
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-gc10-pliocene-42
The warm Pliocene: Bridging the geological data and modelling communities
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

The effect of the Antarctic ice sheet height changes on global climate: A case study of the mid-Pliocene

Xiaofang Huang1,2, Shiling Yang1,2,3, Alan Haywood4, Julia Tindall4, Dabang Jiang5,3, Yongda wang1,2, Minmin Sun1,2,3, and Shihao Zhang1,2,3
Xiaofang Huang et al.
  • 1Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, China (hxf@mail.iggcas.ac.cn)
  • 2CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment
  • 3College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • 4School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds
  • 5Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Warming-induced topographic changes of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) could have significant influence on the climate. However, how large changes in the EAIS height could theoretically affect global climate have yet to be studied. Here, the influence of possible height changes of the EAIS on climate is investigated through numerical climate modeling, using the Pliocene as a test case. As expected, the investigation reveals that the reduction of ice sheet height leads to a warmer and wetter East Antarctica. However, unintuitively, both the surface air temperature and the sea surface temperature decrease over the rest of the globe. These temperature changes result from the higher air pressure over Antarctica and the corresponding lower air pressure over extra-Antarctic regions with the reduction of EAIS height. This topography effect is further confirmed by energy balance analyses. These findings could provide insights into future climate change caused by warming-induced height reduction of the Antarctic ice sheet.

How to cite: Huang, X., Yang, S., Haywood, A., Tindall, J., Jiang, D., wang, Y., Sun, M., and Zhang, S.: The effect of the Antarctic ice sheet height changes on global climate: A case study of the mid-Pliocene, The warm Pliocene: Bridging the geological data and modelling communities, Leeds, United Kingdom, 23–26 Aug 2022, GC10-Pliocene-42, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-gc10-pliocene-42, 2022.