Modelling of the 1991 Greenland summer with the coupled atmosphere-snow regional model MAR

The last IPCC report predicts important snow falls in winter and an increase of the summer melting in Greenland. Without quantifying it, General Circulation Models (GCMs) predict that this last phenomenon will win. A subsequent mass loss of the Greenland ice sheet will occur, with an impact on sea level and possibly on the Atlantic Ocean circulation. A more precise estimate of this mass loss requires notably a fine spatial resolution, elaborated atmospheric physics (e.g., to simulate katabatic wind) and a detailed representation of the snow-ice surface, as in the coupled atmosphere-snow model MAR used at UCL-ASTR.

The ability of MAR to simulate the Greenland climate is assessed by simulating the 1991 melting season. MAR results compare favourably with observations from weather stations or satellite derived data, including local components as the melt parameters. The comparison to the ECMWF re-analysis highlights the interest of a regional model to study the Greenland climate and its mass balance.