Principal investigators

Shuting Yang (DMI), Masa Kageyama (CNRS)

Partners

MPG, METO, CNRS, MFCNRM, DMI, SMHI, UCL

Abstract

The aim of this WP is to incorporate three main components of the cryosphere into ESMs: polar ice-sheets, sea-ice and permafrost. The WP will take advantage of existing models of these components, which have been used in a stand-alone mode but either have not been introduced into ESMs or in a rather simple manner. Therefore the focus of this WP will be to develop coupling methods of the new cryosphere components with the atmosphere, the land surface and the ocean, and to assess the improvements by validation against observations and regional model output.

Specific objectives:

• Coupling of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet models to ESMs.
• Development of new components in sea ice models and improvement of sea ice coupling in ESMs.
• Introduction of models representing the thermal and hydrological aspects of permafrost (the carbon cycle aspects of permafrost will be implemented in WP1).