Probabilistic projections of the Amery Ice Shelf catchment, Antarctica, under conditions of high ice-shelf basal melt

<p>Antarctica's Lambert Glacier drains about one-sixth of the ice from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and is considered stable due to the strong buttressing provided by the Amery Ice Shelf. While previous projections of the sea-level contribution from this sector of the ice sheet have predi...

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Main Authors: S. Jantre, M. J. Hoffman, N. M. Urban, T. Hillebrand, M. Perego, S. Price, J. D. Jakeman
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2024-11-01
Series:The Cryosphere
Online Access:https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/18/5207/2024/tc-18-5207-2024.pdf
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author S. Jantre
M. J. Hoffman
N. M. Urban
T. Hillebrand
M. Perego
S. Price
J. D. Jakeman
author_facet S. Jantre
M. J. Hoffman
N. M. Urban
T. Hillebrand
M. Perego
S. Price
J. D. Jakeman
author_sort S. Jantre
collection DOAJ
description <p>Antarctica's Lambert Glacier drains about one-sixth of the ice from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and is considered stable due to the strong buttressing provided by the Amery Ice Shelf. While previous projections of the sea-level contribution from this sector of the ice sheet have predicted significant mass loss only with near-complete removal of the ice shelf, the ocean warming necessary for this was deemed unlikely. Recent climate projections through 2300 indicate that sufficient ocean warming is a distinct possibility after 2100. This work explores the impact of parametric uncertainty on projections of the response of the Lambert–Amery system (hereafter “the Amery sector”) to abrupt ocean warming through Bayesian calibration of a perturbed-parameter ice-sheet model ensemble. We address the computational cost of uncertainty quantification for ice-sheet model projections via statistical emulation, which employs surrogate models for fast and inexpensive parameter space exploration while retaining critical features of the high-fidelity simulations. To this end, we build Gaussian process (GP) emulators from simulations of the Amery sector at a medium resolution (4–20 km mesh) using the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS)-Albany Land Ice (MALI) model. We consider six input parameters that control basal friction, ice stiffness, calving, and ice-shelf basal melting. From these, we generate 200 perturbed input parameter initializations using space filling Sobol sampling. For our end-to-end probabilistic modeling workflow, we first train emulators on the simulation ensemble and then calibrate the input parameters using observations of the mass balance, grounding line movement, and calving front movement with priors assigned via expert knowledge. Next, we use MALI to project a subset of simulations to 2300 using ocean and atmosphere forcings from a climate model for both low- and high-greenhouse-gas-emission scenarios. From these simulation outputs, we build multivariate emulators by combining GP regression with principal component dimension reduction to emulate multivariate sea-level contribution time series data from the MALI simulations. We then use these emulators to propagate uncertainty from model input parameters to predictions of glacier mass loss through 2300, demonstrating that the calibrated posterior distributions have both greater mass loss and reduced variance compared to the uncalibrated prior distributions. Parametric uncertainty is large enough through about 2130 that the two projections under different emission scenarios are indistinguishable from one another. However, after rapid ocean warming in the first half of the 22nd century, the projections become statistically distinct within decades. Overall, this study demonstrates an efficient Bayesian calibration and uncertainty propagation workflow for ice-sheet model projections and identifies the potential for large sea-level rise contributions from the Amery sector of the Antarctic Ice Sheet after 2100 under high-greenhouse-gas-emission scenarios.</p>
format Article
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institution Kabale University
issn 1994-0416
1994-0424
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publishDate 2024-11-01
publisher Copernicus Publications
record_format Article
series The Cryosphere
spelling doaj-art-9b00a5c33e004ae6bc138cbed75cdfa52024-11-15T10:19:06ZengCopernicus PublicationsThe Cryosphere1994-04161994-04242024-11-01185207523810.5194/tc-18-5207-2024Probabilistic projections of the Amery Ice Shelf catchment, Antarctica, under conditions of high ice-shelf basal meltS. Jantre0M. J. Hoffman1N. M. Urban2T. Hillebrand3M. Perego4S. Price5J. D. Jakeman6Applied Mathematics Group, Computational Science Initiative, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USAFluid Dynamics and Solid Mechanics Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USAApplied Mathematics Group, Computational Science Initiative, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USAFluid Dynamics and Solid Mechanics Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USACenter for Computing Research, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, USAFluid Dynamics and Solid Mechanics Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USACenter for Computing Research, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, USA<p>Antarctica's Lambert Glacier drains about one-sixth of the ice from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and is considered stable due to the strong buttressing provided by the Amery Ice Shelf. While previous projections of the sea-level contribution from this sector of the ice sheet have predicted significant mass loss only with near-complete removal of the ice shelf, the ocean warming necessary for this was deemed unlikely. Recent climate projections through 2300 indicate that sufficient ocean warming is a distinct possibility after 2100. This work explores the impact of parametric uncertainty on projections of the response of the Lambert–Amery system (hereafter “the Amery sector”) to abrupt ocean warming through Bayesian calibration of a perturbed-parameter ice-sheet model ensemble. We address the computational cost of uncertainty quantification for ice-sheet model projections via statistical emulation, which employs surrogate models for fast and inexpensive parameter space exploration while retaining critical features of the high-fidelity simulations. To this end, we build Gaussian process (GP) emulators from simulations of the Amery sector at a medium resolution (4–20 km mesh) using the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS)-Albany Land Ice (MALI) model. We consider six input parameters that control basal friction, ice stiffness, calving, and ice-shelf basal melting. From these, we generate 200 perturbed input parameter initializations using space filling Sobol sampling. For our end-to-end probabilistic modeling workflow, we first train emulators on the simulation ensemble and then calibrate the input parameters using observations of the mass balance, grounding line movement, and calving front movement with priors assigned via expert knowledge. Next, we use MALI to project a subset of simulations to 2300 using ocean and atmosphere forcings from a climate model for both low- and high-greenhouse-gas-emission scenarios. From these simulation outputs, we build multivariate emulators by combining GP regression with principal component dimension reduction to emulate multivariate sea-level contribution time series data from the MALI simulations. We then use these emulators to propagate uncertainty from model input parameters to predictions of glacier mass loss through 2300, demonstrating that the calibrated posterior distributions have both greater mass loss and reduced variance compared to the uncalibrated prior distributions. Parametric uncertainty is large enough through about 2130 that the two projections under different emission scenarios are indistinguishable from one another. However, after rapid ocean warming in the first half of the 22nd century, the projections become statistically distinct within decades. Overall, this study demonstrates an efficient Bayesian calibration and uncertainty propagation workflow for ice-sheet model projections and identifies the potential for large sea-level rise contributions from the Amery sector of the Antarctic Ice Sheet after 2100 under high-greenhouse-gas-emission scenarios.</p>https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/18/5207/2024/tc-18-5207-2024.pdf
spellingShingle S. Jantre
M. J. Hoffman
N. M. Urban
T. Hillebrand
M. Perego
S. Price
J. D. Jakeman
Probabilistic projections of the Amery Ice Shelf catchment, Antarctica, under conditions of high ice-shelf basal melt
The Cryosphere
title Probabilistic projections of the Amery Ice Shelf catchment, Antarctica, under conditions of high ice-shelf basal melt
title_full Probabilistic projections of the Amery Ice Shelf catchment, Antarctica, under conditions of high ice-shelf basal melt
title_fullStr Probabilistic projections of the Amery Ice Shelf catchment, Antarctica, under conditions of high ice-shelf basal melt
title_full_unstemmed Probabilistic projections of the Amery Ice Shelf catchment, Antarctica, under conditions of high ice-shelf basal melt
title_short Probabilistic projections of the Amery Ice Shelf catchment, Antarctica, under conditions of high ice-shelf basal melt
title_sort probabilistic projections of the amery ice shelf catchment antarctica under conditions of high ice shelf basal melt
url https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/18/5207/2024/tc-18-5207-2024.pdf
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