Toward a new generation of ice sheet models

  1. Christopher M. Little1
  2. Michael Oppenheimer2
  3. Richard B. Alley3
  4. Venkatramani Balaji4
  5. Garry K. C. Clarke5
  6. Thomas L. Delworth6
  7. Robert Hallberg6
  8. David M. Holland7
  9. Christina L. Hulbe8
  10. Stan Jacobs9
  11. Jesse V. Johnson10
  12. Hiram Levy6
  13. William H. Lipscomb11
  14. Shawn J. Marshall12
  15. Byron R. Parizek13
  16. Antony J. Payne14
  17. Gavin A. Schmidt15
  18. Ronald J. Stouffer6
  19. David G. Vaughan16
  20. Michael Winton6

Article first published online: 4 JAN 2008

DOI: 10.1029/2007EO520002

Issue

Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union

Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union

Volume 88, Issue 52, pages 578–579, 25 December 2007

Additional Information

How to Cite

Little, C. M., et al. (2007), Toward a new generation of ice sheet models, Eos Trans. AGU, 88(52), 578–579, doi:10.1029/2007EO520002.

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.

  2. 2

    Department of Geosciences and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

  3. 3

    Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

  4. 4

    NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), Princeton, N. J.

  5. 5

    Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of British Columbia ,Vancouver, Canada

  6. 6

    GFDL

  7. 7

    Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, New York

  8. 8

    Department of Geology, Portland State University, Portland, Oreg.

  9. 9

    Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, New York

  10. 10

    Department of Computer Science, University of Montana, Missoula

  11. 11

    Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M.

  12. 12

    Department of Geography, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

  13. 13

    Department of Earth Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, DuBois

  14. 14

    Center for Polar Observation and Modelling, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol ,Bristol, U.K.

  15. 15

    NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University, New York

  16. 16

    British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, U.K.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 4 JAN 2008
  2. Article first published online: 4 JAN 2008

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Large ice sheets, such as those presently covering Greenland and Antarctica, are important in driving changes of global climate and sea level. Yet numerical models developed to predict climate change and ice sheet-driven sea level fluctuations have substantial limitations: Poorly represented physical processes in the ice sheet component likely lead to an underestimation of sea level rise forced by a warming climate.

The resultant uncertainty in sea level projections, and the implications for climate policy, have been widely discussed since the publication of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) [IPCC, 2007]. The assessment report notes that current models do not include “the full effects of changes in ice sheet flow, because a basis in published literature is lacking.” The report also notes that the understanding of rapid dynamical changes in ice flow “is too limited to assess their likelihood or provide a best estimate or an upper bound for sea level rise.”

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