Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Climate

Rights and Access Note

This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. In addition, no permission is required from the rights-holder(s) for educational uses. For other uses, you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Publication Date

9-1-2004

First Page

3415

Last Page

3433

Issue Number

17

Volume Number

17

Abstract/ Summary

Optimized regional climate simulations are conducted using the Polar MM5, a version of the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University-NCAR Mesoscale Model (MM5), with a 60-km horizontal resolution domain over North America during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 21 000 calendar years ago), when much of the continent was covered by the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS). The objective is to describe the LGM annual cycle at high spatial resolution with an emphasis on the winter atmospheric circulation. Output from a tailored NCAR Community Climate Model version 3 (CCM3) simulation of the LGM climate is used to provide the initial and lateral boundary conditions for Polar MM5. LGM boundary conditions include continental ice sheets, appropriate orbital forcing, reduced CO2 concentration, paleovegetation, modified sea surface temperatures, and lowered sea level. Polar MM5 produces a substantially different atmospheric response to the LGM boundary conditions than CCM3 and other recent GCM simulations. In particular, from November to April the upper-level flow is split around a blocking anticyclone over the LIS, with a northern branch over the Canadian Arctic and a southern branch impacting southern North America. The split flow pattern is most pronounced in January and transitions into a single, consolidated jet stream that migrates northward over the LIS during summer. Sensitivity experiments indicate that the winter split flow in Polar MM5 is primarily due to mechanical forcing by LIS, although model physics and resolution also contribute to the simulated flow configuration. Polar MM5 LGM results are generally consistent with proxy climate estimates in the western United States, Alaska, and the Canadian Arctic and may help resolve some long-standing discrepancies between proxy data and previous simulations of the LGM climate.

Citation/Publisher Attribution

Bromwich, DH, Toracinta, ER, Wei, HL, Oglesby, RJ, Fastook, JL, and Hughes, TJ, 2004, Polar MM5 Simulations of the Winter Climate of the Laurentide Ice Sheet at the LGM: Journal of Climate, v. 17, p. 3415-3433. Available on publisher's site at: http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0442%282004%29017%3C3415%3APMSOTW%3E2.0.CO%3B2

Publisher Statement

© Copyright 2004 American Meteorological Society

DOI

10.1175/1520-0442(2004)017<3415:PMSOTW>2.0.CO;2

Version

publisher's version of the published document

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In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted.