Greenland Ice Sheet influence on Last Interglacial climate: global sensitivity studies performed with an atmosphere–ocean general circulation model

Abstract

Abstract. During the Last Interglacial (LIG, 130–115 kiloyear before present), the northern high latitudes experienced higher temperatures than those of the late Holocene with a notably lower Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS). However, the impact of a reduced GIS on the global climate has not yet been well constrained. In this study, we quantify the contribution of the GIS to LIG warmth by performing various sensitivity studies, employing the Community Earth System Models (COSMOS), with a focus on height and extent of the GIS. In order to asses the effects of insolation changes over time and for a comparison of LIG climate with the current interglacial, we perform transient simulations covering the whole LIG and Holocene. We analyze surface air temperature (SAT) and separate the contribution of different forcings to LIG warmth. The strong Northern Hemisphere warming is mainly caused by increased summer insolation. Reducing the height and extent of the GIS leads to a warming of several degrees Celcius in the northern and southern high latitudes during local winter. In order to evaluate the performance of our LIG simulations, we additionally compare the simulated SAT anomalies with marine and terrestrial proxy-based LIG temperature anomalies. Our model results are in good agreement with proxy records with respect to the pattern, but underestimate the reconstructed temperatures. We are able to reduce the mismatch between model and data by taking into account the potential seasonal bias of the proxy record and the uncertainties in the dating of the proxy records for the LIG thermal maximum. The seasonal bias and the uncertainty of the timing are estimated from our own transient model simulations. We note however that our LIG simulations are not able to reproduce the full magnitude of temperature changes indicated by the proxies, suggesting a potential misinterpretation of the proxy records or deficits of our model.