https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2021-318/

Insensitivity of mass loss of Icelandic Vatnajökull ice cap to solar
geoengineering

Chao Yue, Louise Steffensen Schmidt, Liyun Zhao, Michael Wolovick, and John
C. Moore


Abstract

Geoengineering by stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) may reduce the mass
loss from Vatnajökull ice cap (VIC), Iceland, by slowing surface
temperature rise, despite relative increases in ocean heat flux brought by
the Atlantic Meridional Circulation (AMOC). Although surface mass balance
(SMB) is affected by the local climate, the sea level contribution is also
dependent on ice dynamics. We use the Parallel Ice Sheet Model (PISM) to
estimate the VIC mass balance under the CMIP5 (Coupled Model
Intercomparison Project Phase 5) RCP4.5, 8.5 and GeoMIP (Geoengineering
Model Intercomparison Project) G4 SAI scenarios during the period
1982–2089. The G4 scenario is based on the RCP4.5, but with additional 5 Tg
yr−1 of SO2 injection to the lower stratosphere. By 2089, G4 reduces VIC
mass loss from 16 % lost under RCP4.5, to 12 %. Ice dynamics are important
for ice cap loss rates, increasing mass loss for RCP4.5 and G4 by 1/4 to
1/3 compared with excluding ice dynamics, but making no difference to mass
loss difference under the scenarios. We find that VIC dynamics are
remarkably insensitive to climate forcing partly because of AMOC
compensation to SMB and low rates of iceberg calving making ocean forcing
close to negligible. But the exceptionally high geothermal heat flow under
parts of the ice cap which produces correspondingly high basal melt rates
means that surface forcing changes are relatively less important than for
glaciers with lower geothermal heat flow.

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