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    The Earth system model CLIMBER-X v1.0 - Part 2: The global carbon cycle
    (Katlenburg-Lindau : Copernicus, 2023) Willeit, Matteo; Ilyina, Tatiana; Liu, Bo; Heinze, Christoph; Perrette, Mahé; Heinemann, Malte; Dalmonech, Daniela; Brovkin, Victor; Munhoven, Guy; Börker, Janine; Hartmann, Jens; Romero-Mujalli, Gibran; Ganopolski, Andrey
    The carbon cycle component of the newly developed Earth system model of intermediate complexity CLIMBER-X is presented. The model represents the cycling of carbon through the atmosphere, vegetation, soils, seawater and marine sediments. Exchanges of carbon with geological reservoirs occur through sediment burial, rock weathering and volcanic degassing. The state-of-the-art HAMOCC6 model is employed to simulate ocean biogeochemistry and marine sediment processes. The land model PALADYN simulates the processes related to vegetation and soil carbon dynamics, including permafrost and peatlands. The dust cycle in the model allows for an interactive determination of the input of the micro-nutrient iron into the ocean. A rock weathering scheme is implemented in the model, with the weathering rate depending on lithology, runoff and soil temperature. CLIMBER-X includes a simple representation of the methane cycle, with explicitly modelled natural emissions from land and the assumption of a constant residence time of CH4 in the atmosphere. Carbon isotopes 13C and 14C are tracked through all model compartments and provide a useful diagnostic for model-data comparison. A comprehensive evaluation of the model performance for the present day and the historical period shows that CLIMBER-X is capable of realistically reproducing the historical evolution of atmospheric CO2 and CH4 but also the spatial distribution of carbon on land and the 3D structure of biogeochemical ocean tracers. The analysis of model performance is complemented by an assessment of carbon cycle feedbacks and model sensitivities compared to state-of-the-art Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) models. Enabling an interactive carbon cycle in CLIMBER-X results in a relatively minor slow-down of model computational performance by ∼ 20 % compared to a throughput of ∼ 10 000 simulation years per day on a single node with 16 CPUs on a high-performance computer in a climate-only model set-up. CLIMBER-X is therefore well suited to investigating the feedbacks between climate and the carbon cycle on temporal scales ranging from decades to >100000 years.
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    Modeling the response of Greenland outlet glaciers to global warming using a coupled flow line-plume model
    (Katlenburg-Lindau : Copernicus, 2019) Beckmann, Johanna; Perrette, Mahé; Beyer, Sebastian; Calov, Reinhard; Willeit, Matteo; Ganopolski, Andrey
    In recent decades, the Greenland Ice Sheet has experienced an accelerated mass loss, contributing to approximately 25 % of contemporary sea level rise (SLR). This mass loss is caused by increased surface melt over a large area of the ice sheet and by the thinning, retreat and acceleration of numerous Greenland outlet glaciers. The latter is likely connected to enhanced submarine melting that, in turn, can be explained by ocean warming and enhanced subglacial discharge. The mechanisms involved in submarine melting are not yet fully understood and are only simplistically incorporated in some models of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Here, we investigate the response of 12 representative Greenland outlet glaciers to atmospheric and oceanic warming using a coupled line–plume glacier–flow line model resolving one horizontal dimension. The model parameters have been tuned for individual outlet glaciers using present-day observational constraints. We then run the model from present to the year 2100, forcing the model with changes in surface mass balance and surface runoff from simulations with a regional climate model for the RCP8.5 scenario, and applying a linear ocean temperature warming with different rates of changes representing uncertainties in the CMIP5 model experiments for the same climate change scenario. We also use different initial temperature–salinity profiles obtained from direct measurements and from ocean reanalysis data. Using different combinations of submarine melting and calving parameters that reproduce the present-day state of the glaciers, we estimate uncertainties in the contribution to global SLR for individual glaciers. We also perform a sensitivity analysis of the three forcing factors (changes in surface mass balance, ocean temperature and subglacial discharge), which shows that the roles of the different forcing factors are diverse for individual glaciers. We find that changes in ocean temperature and subglacial discharge are of comparable importance for the cumulative contribution of all 12 glaciers to global SLR in the 21st century. The median range of the cumulative contribution to the global SLR for all 12 glaciers is about 18 mm (the glaciers' dynamic response to changes of all three forcing factors). Neglecting changes in ocean temperature and subglacial discharge (which control submarine melt) and investigating the response to changes in surface mass balance only leads to a cumulative contribution of 5 mm SLR. Thus, from the 18 mm we associate roughly 70 % with the glaciers' dynamic response to increased subglacial discharge and ocean temperature and the remaining 30 % (5 mm) to the response to increased surface mass loss. We also find a strong correlation (correlation coefficient 0.74) between present-day grounding line discharge and their future contribution to SLR in 2100. If the contribution of the 12 glaciers is scaled up to the total present-day discharge of Greenland, we estimate the midrange contribution of all Greenland glaciers to 21st-century SLR to be approximately 50 mm. This number adds to SLR derived from a stand-alone ice sheet model (880 mm) that does not resolve outlet glaciers and thus increases SLR by over 50 %. This result confirms earlier studies showing that the response of the outlet glaciers to global warming has to be taken into account to correctly assess the total contribution of Greenland to sea level change.