Climate of the Past Discussions www.clim-past-discuss.net 1814-9340 1814-9359 3 1 2007 10.5194/cpd-3-301-2007 http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/3/301/2007/ http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/3/301/2007/cpd-3-301-2007.html http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/3/301/2007/cpd-3-301-2007.pdf 301 336 2007-02-06 Climatic conditions for modelling the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets throughout the ice age cycle A. Abe-Ouchi abeouchi@ccsr.u-tokyo.ac.jp T. Segawa F. Saito Center for Climate System Research, University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, 277-8568, Japan Frontier Research Center for Global Change/Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 3173-25 Showamachi, Kanagawa, 236-0001, Japan The ice sheet-climate interaction as well as the climatic response to orbital parameters and atmospheric CO₂ content are examined in order to drive an ice sheet model throughout an ice age cycle. Feedback processes between ice sheet and atmosphere are analyzed by numerical experiments using a high resolution General Circulation Model (GCM) under different conditions at the Last Glacial Maximum. Among the proposed processes, the ice albedo feedback, the elevation-mass balance feedback and the desertification effect over ice sheet were found to be the dominant processes for the ice-sheet mass balance. The temperature lapse rate over the ice sheet is proposed to be about 5 °C km^–1, which is weaker than assumed in other studies. Within the plausible range of parameters related to these processes, the ice sheet response to orbital parameters and atmospheric CO₂ content for the last glacial/interglacial cycle was simulated in terms of both ice volume and geographical distribution, using a three-dimensional ice-sheet model. Careful treatment related to climate-ice sheet feedback is essential for a reliable simulation of ice sheet changes during ice age cycles. 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