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Simulations of the Early Holocene demise of the Laurentide Ice Sheet with BISICLES (public trunk r3298)

This dataset presents the input and output data from a set of sensitivity experiments to simulate the evolution of the Laurentide ice sheet in the Early Holocene (10-7 thousand years ago). These data are presented in the manuscript "Simulating the Early Holocene demise of the Laurentide Ice Sheet with BISICLES (public trunk revision 3298)". Simulating the demise of the Laurentide Ice Sheet covering the Hudson Bay in the early Holocene is important for understanding the role of accelerated changes in ice sheet topography and melt in the ''8.2 ka event'', a century long cooling of the Northern Hemisphere by several degrees. Freshwater released from the ice sheet through a surface mass balance instability (known as the saddle collapse) has been suggested as a major forcing for the 8.2 ka event, but the temporal evolution of this pulse has not been constrained. Dynamical ice loss and marine interactions could have significantly accelerated the ice sheet demise, but simulating such processes requires computationally expensive models that are difficult to configure and are often impractical for simulating past ice sheets. Here, we developed an ice sheet model setup for studying the Laurentide Ice Sheet''s Hudson Bay saddle collapse and the associated meltwater pulse in unprecedented detail using the BISICLES ice sheet model, an efficient marine ice sheet model of the latest generation, capable of refinement to kilometre-scale resolution and higher-order ice flow physics. The setup draws on previous efforts to model the deglaciation of the North American Ice Sheet for initialising the ice sheet temperature, recent ice sheet reconstructions for developing the topography of the region and ice sheet, and output from a general circulation model for a representation of the climatic forcing. The modelled deglaciation is in agreement with the reconstructed extent of the ice sheet and the associated meltwater pulse has realistic timing. Furthermore, the peak magnitude of the modelled meltwater equivalent (0.07-0.13 Sv) is compatible with geological estimates of freshwater discharge through the Hudson Strait. The results demonstrate that while improved representation of the glacial dynamics and marine interactions are key for correctly simulating the pattern of early Holocene ice sheet retreat, surface mass balance introduces by far the most uncertainty. The new model configuration presented here provides future opportunities to quantify the range of plausible amplitudes and durations of a Hudson Bay ice saddle collapse meltwater pulse and its role in forcing the 8.2 ka event.

Ilkka Matero was funded by the Leeds-York Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Spheres Doctoral Training Partnership (NE/L002574/1). The contribution from Ruza Ivanovic was partly supported by NERC grant NE/K008536/1. Lauren Gregoire is funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/S016961/1). The work made use of the N8 HPC facilities, which are provided and funded by the N8 consortium and EPSRC (EP/K000225/1) and co-ordinated by the Universities of Leeds and Manchester.

Simple

Alternate title
Polar Data Centre (PDC) record GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/01252
Date (Publication)
2019-11-08
Identifier
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/dms/metadata.php?id= / GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/01252
Custodian
  British Antarctic Survey
High Cross, Madingley Road , Cambridge , CB3 0ET , UK
+44 (0)1223 221400
Originator
  UK Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation - Matero, I., Gregoire, L., & Ivanovic, R.
High Cross, Madingley , Cambridge , CB3 0ET , UK
+44 (0)1223 221400
Maintenance and update frequency
unknown Unknown
Keywords
  • NDGO0001
NERC OAI Harvesting
  • NERC_DDC
GCMD Parameter Valids
  • EARTH SCIENCE > Cryosphere > Glaciers/Ice Sheets
  • EARTH SCIENCE > Cryosphere > Glaciers/Ice Sheets > Glacier Mass Balance/Ice Sheet Mass Balance
  • EARTH SCIENCE > Cryosphere > Glaciers/Ice Sheets > Glacier Thickness/Ice Sheet Thickness
  • EARTH SCIENCE > Cryosphere > Glaciers/Ice Sheets > Glacier Topography/Ice Sheet Topography
  • EARTH SCIENCE > Cryosphere > Glaciers/Ice Sheets > Ice Sheets
  • EARTH SCIENCE > Hydrosphere > Glaciers/Ice Sheets
  • EARTH SCIENCE > Hydrosphere > Glaciers/Ice Sheets > Glacier Mass Balance/Ice Sheet Mass Balance
  • EARTH SCIENCE > Hydrosphere > Glaciers/Ice Sheets > Glacier Thickness/Ice Sheet Thickness
  • EARTH SCIENCE > Hydrosphere > Glaciers/Ice Sheets > Glacier Topography/Ice Sheet Topography
  • EARTH SCIENCE > Hydrosphere > Glaciers/Ice Sheets > Glaciers
  • EARTH SCIENCE > Paleoclimate > Paleoclimate Reconstructions
BAS Free-text keywords
  • 8.2 ka event
  • BISICLES
  • Holocene
  • Laurentide
  • ice sheet
  • ice sheet model
Use limitation
This data is governed by the NERC data policy http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/sites/data/policy/ and supplied under Open Government Licence v.3 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
Access constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
This data is governed by the NERC data policy http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/sites/data/policy/ and supplied under Open Government Licence v.3 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Topic category
  • Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere
  • Environment
  • Geoscientific information
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Begin date
unknown
End date
unknown
Reference system identifier
OGP / urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326
Distribution format
Distributor
  Polar Data Centre - British Antarctic Survey
+44 (0)1223 221400
Protocol
http
Name
GET DATA
Function
download Download
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset

Domain consistency

Measure identification
INSPIRE / Conformity_001

Conformance result

Date
Explanation
See the referenced specification
Pass
No
Statement
NetCDF files were produced by concatenating and filtering the raw output. This processing has not affected the accuracy of the data.
File identifier
GB_NERC_BAS_PDC_01252 XML
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Date stamp
2019-11-08
Metadata standard name
NERC profile of ISO19115:2003
Metadata standard version
1.0
Point of contact
  British Antarctic Survey
+44 (0)1223 221400
Dataset URI
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/dms/metadata.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/01252
 
 

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