Warm Nordic Seas delayed glacial inception in Scandinavia

We simulate the last glacial inception, 115 000 years ago, with a three dimensional thermomechanical ice sheet model of the Northern Hemisphere, forced by a comprehensive coupled climate model. High oceanic heat transport into the Nordic Seas prevents large scale ice growth over Scandinavia. Glacial...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Climate of the past 2010-01, Vol.6 (6), p.817-826
Main Authors: Born, A., Kageyama, M., Nisancioglu, K. H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Continental interfaces, environment
Marine
Ocean, Atmosphere
Sciences of the Universe
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We simulate the last glacial inception, 115 000 years ago, with a three dimensional thermomechanical ice sheet model of the Northern Hemisphere, forced by a comprehensive coupled climate model. High oceanic heat transport into the Nordic Seas prevents large scale ice growth over Scandinavia. Glacial inception in the region starts on the highest mountains in the south when sea surface temperatures in the Nordic Seas are reduced by at least 3 °C. Ice growth in Northern Scandinavia requires a cooling by at least 4 °C. This is in good agreement with marine proxy data from the Nordic Seas and North Atlantic as well as available terrestrial data. This study thus provides a physical understanding and revised timing of the first glacier advance over Scandinavia.
ISSN:1814-9332
1814-9324
1814-9332
DOI:10.5194/cp-6-817-2010