Datasets and protocols for including anomalous freshwater from melting ice sheets in climate simulations [Development and technical paper]

Schmidt, Gavin A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2258-0486; Mankoff, Kenneth D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5453-2019; Bamber, Jonathan L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2280-2819; Burgard, Clara ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3847-3172; Carroll, Dustin; Chandler, David M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5759-2412; Coulon, Violaine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2683-7434; Davison, Benjamin J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9483-2956; England, Matthew H.; Holland, Paul ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8370-289X; Jourdain, Nicolas C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1372-2235; Li, Qian; Marson, Juliana M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5074-7370; Mathiot, Pierre; McMahon, Clive R.; Moon, Twila A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0968-7008; Mottram, Ruth ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1016-1997; Nowicki, Sophie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6328-5590; Olivé Abelló, Anna ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3136-8898; Pauling, Andrew G.; Rackow, Thomas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5468-575X; Ringeisen, Damien ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8436-6928. 2025 Datasets and protocols for including anomalous freshwater from melting ice sheets in climate simulations [Development and technical paper]. Geoscientific Model Development, 18 (21). 8333-8361. 10.5194/gmd-18-8333-2025

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Abstract/Summary

Anomalous freshwater fluxes from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and ice shelves are impacting the surrounding oceans, and we need to be able to account for these effects in climate model simulations over the historical period and in future projections. In previous phases of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP), models mostly either assumed that the ice sheets were in mass balance, or that discharge from the ice sheets was constant, but in neither case was the observed increasing discharge over the historical period properly represented. In this paper, we present data products of absolute and anomalous freshwater mass fluxes from both major ice sheets, and recommendations for their use in historical simulations. These fluxes can be implemented in climate simulations as a forcing for models that do not (yet) include interactive ice sheets, or used to evaluate models that do. We also make recommendations for how climatological and anomalous fluxes can be implemented in climate models that may have different approaches to interactions with the ice sheets. These forcings are available for CMIP7 simulations and should lead to more robust and coherent simulation of sea surface temperature, sea ice and regional sea level trends in the recent historical period and, as these data are extended, improve the credibility of projections.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.5194/gmd-18-8333-2025
ISSN:	1991-9603
NORA Subject Terms:	Glaciology Marine Sciences Data and Information
Date made live:	13 Nov 2025 10:04 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/540563

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