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Science 24 March 2006:
Vol. 311. no. 5768, pp. 1751 - 1753
DOI: 10.1126/science.1120808

Reports

Simulating Arctic Climate Warmth and Icefield Retreat in the Last Interglaciation

Bette L. Otto-Bliesner,1* Shawn J. Marshall,2 Jonathan T. Overpeck,3 Gifford H. Miller,4 Aixue Hu,1 CAPE Last Interglacial Project members

In the future, Arctic warming and the melting of polar glaciers will be considerable, but the magnitude of both is uncertain. We used a global climate model, a dynamic ice sheet model, and paleoclimatic data to evaluate Northern Hemisphere high-latitude warming and its impact on Arctic icefields during the Last Interglaciation. Our simulated climate matches paleoclimatic observations of past warming, and the combination of physically based climate and ice-sheet modeling with ice-core constraints indicate that the Greenland Ice Sheet and other circum-Arctic ice fields likely contributed 2.2 to 3.4 meters of sea-level rise during the Last Interglaciation.

1 Climate and Global Dynamics Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO 80305, USA.
2 Department of Geography, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada.
3 Institute for the Study of Planet Earth, Department of Geosciences, and Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
4 Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ottobli{at}ucar.edu

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