Table 2 Summary of experiments and Arctic ice shelf mass balance

From: Numerical simulations of a kilometre-thick Arctic ice shelf consistent with ice grounding observations

Figure

Climate

Eurasian Ice Sheet

Ocean factor

hcalv (m)

Mean shelf thickness (m)

Shelf volume (106 km3)

Flux in (Gt year−1)

Flux out (Gt year−1)

SMB (Gt year−1)

Ocean melt (Gt year−1)

3a

MIS6 (T2)

Svendsen04

1.0

100

833

3.54

460

−470

370

−380

3b, 1b, 5a

MIS6 (T1)

Svendsen04

1.0

100

1070

4.42

950

−660

240

−570

3c

MIS6 (T1)

Unconstrained

1.0

100

1173

4.76

1110

−710

230

−660

3d

MIS6 (T1)

Unconstrained

1.0

100

254

0.79

MIS6 (T2)

Unconstrained

1.0

100

917

3.88

660

−600

370

−450

5b

MIS6 (T1)

Svendsen04

1.0

100

1029

4.32

1020

−720

240

−540

S2a

MIS6 (T2)

Svendsen04

0.5

100

1052

4.30

490

−640

370

−270

S2b

MIS6 (T2)

Svendsen04

2.0

100

617

2.68

410

−320

360

−470

S2c

MIS6 (T2)

Svendsen04

4.0

100

433

1.89

440

−190

350

−540

S2d

MIS6 (T2)

Svendsen04

8.0

100

253

1.09

400

−80

260

−500

S1a

LGM

Hughes16

1.0

150

S1b

LGM

Hughes16

1.0

125

S1c, S1d

LGM

Hughes16

1.0

100

S3

LGM

Hughes16

1.0

100

940

3.93

940

−640

110

−460

  1. All ice sheet parameters are as ref. 22, unless otherwise shown. Small differences in surface mass balance (SMB) between some simulations that have the same input climate are caused by different areal extents of the ice shelf. Note that variability in the flux of ice into and out of the Arctic Basin due to ice stream activity (see Fig. 4) means that mass balance values may not sum to zero, although the ice shelf thickness has reached equilibrium. For ease of interpretation, mass balance values are rounded to the nearest 10 Gt year−1. Svendsen04 is the >140 ka Eurasian Ice Sheet extent of ref. 61 and Hughes16 is the ‘best-estimate’ maximum extent of the Eurasian Ice Sheet during the last glacial cycle, from ref. 30
  2. T1 is a climate simulation with LGM equivalent North American Ice Sheets, T2 is a climate simulation with approximate MIS6 North American Ice Sheets, following Ref. 23