Contribution of Atmospheric Circulation to Inception of the Laurentide Ice Sheet at 116 kyr BP

Abstract

The role of atmospheric circulations, yielding extremely cold summer and wet winter seasons, in the development of perennial snow cover over the inception region of the Laurentide Ice Sheet is investigated using the Community Land Model, version 3 (CLM3) with bias-corrected 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40) idealized atmospheric forcing. Potential contribution of changes in frequency of these extremes under contemporary and Eemian (116 kyr BP) conditions is also examined by adjusting the atmospheric forcing. The results confirm that colder atmospheric temperatures during the melt season are more important than extreme amounts of winter snowfall. Increases in frequency of extremely cold and persistent summer air temperatures in the contemporary climate do not produce perennial snow. An additional cooling of 4°C together with adjustments for Eemian incident radiation is required for perennial snow to start growing around Hudson Bay. Deeper snow is found over the Labrador?Ungava area, close to the North Atlantic Ocean moisture sources, compared to the Keewatin area. These areas are in agreement with the locations of the Laurentide Ice Sheet domes found from free gravity analysis. Starting from the warm present-day atmosphere a 25% decrease in summer insolation is required for CLM3 to develop perennial snow. This suggests that cooling resulting from modest decreases in local insolation in response to Milankovitch radiation forcing was insufficient for inception at 116 kyr BP. Remote cooling or local feedbacks that amplify the impact of the modest insolation reductions are required. A large-scale atmospheric cooling appears to have played a decisive role in inception.