Welcome to the Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project for CMIP6 (ISMIP6) wiki! You are encouraged to use the wiki pages to alter the formulation of numerical experiments, point out any inconsistencies or inaccuracies you find in the data sets, and post results and figures that you’d like others see and discuss.
NEW: The planning for ISMIP7 has started! Let us know at ismip6-at-gmail.com if you want to be involved! We will be revisiting every aspect of the ISMIP6 protocol and see how it can be improved… Of course, we are also tied to the CMIP7 protocols and IPCC AR7 schedules, which are themselves being worked on…
Current Activity: ISMIP6 Antarctic 2300 projections. These projections focus on simulations of the Antarctic Ice Sheet extended to year 2300. These new experiments were launched in February 2022 and more details are available on the ISMIP6-Projections2300-Antarctica page.
What is ISMIP6?
The overall framework for ISMIP6 is designed to deliver projections of the ice sheet contribution to sea level rise. ISMIP6 brings together for the first time a consortium of international ice sheet models and coupled ice sheet – climate models. This effort thoroughly explores the sea level contribution from the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheet in our changing climate and assess the impact of large ice sheets on the climate system. Together with the new glacier CliC (Climate and Cryosphere) targeted activity and projections of thermal expansion (that already sit within the CMIP Coupled Model Intercomparison Project framework), this allows sea level to become part of the family of variables for which CMIP can provide routine IPCC-style projections. ISMIP6 is explicitly designed to ensure that ice sheet (hence sea level) projections are fully compatible with the CMIP6 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project-Phase 6) process. ISMIP6 also provides the basis for investigating the feedbacks, impacts, and sea level changes associated with dynamic ice sheets and for quantifying the uncertainty in ice-sheet-sourced global sea level change.
The proposed experiments both use and augment the CMIP6-DECK (Diagnostic Evaluation and Characetization of Klima), Historical and ScenarioMIP experiments. ISMIP6 uses the standard CMIP AGCM (Atmosphere General Circulation Models) and AOGCM (Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Models) experiments for analysis of the climate over and surrounding the ice sheets, and as forcing for the standalone ice sheet models (ISM) projections. Additional sensitivity experiments were performed with the ISM to investigate the uncertainty associated with these projections arising from ice sheet models. The key output is an ensemble of historical and future estimates of ice sheet contribution to sea level. To address the feedbacks introduced by interactive ice sheets, we proposed that a small number of selected DECK experiments are repeated with coupled AOGCM-ISM, where the ice sheet is an interactive component of the AOGCM. Our assessment of the state of existing AOGCMs is that coupled models including an interactive Greenland ice sheet can realistically be expected for CMIP6, however including the Antarctic ice sheet remains challenging (because of the greater complexity of its response to climate forcing, and the issues associated with simulations of the Southern Ocean). It is for these reasons that ISMIP6 heavily relies on standalone ice sheet models driven offline by CMIP6 climate models for projections of sea level.
ISMIP6 and Richardson Medal
In March 2023, ISMIP6 was recognized for its outstanding service to the field of glaciology and sea level projection by the International Glaciology Society via the first Richardson Medal ever given to a team. The award announcement reads:
“We recognize the entire ISMIP6 team for its academic and leadership activities in the design and production of future sea-level projections. The ISMIP6 team, consisting of over 80 members, has provided outstanding service to the field of glaciology by planning and coordinating projections of ice-sheet change. The ISMIP6 team has been instrumental in providing a community-led response to two WCRP Grand Challenges: “Melting Ice and Global Consequences” and “Regional Sea Level Change and Coastal Impacts”. Although ice-sheet model comparisons have a long history in the field of glaciology, dating back to the EISMINT experiments in the 1990s, the atmospheric, oceanic and other climate communities have made significant advances through the suite of CMIP simulations that form the basis of sections of the IPCC report. The ISMIP6 team was responsible for collaborative design and interpretation of the ensemble of model runs used for projections of future ice-sheet change and bringing the ice-sheet community under the auspices of the international CMIP community. As part of this, the ISMIP6 team has been instrumental in building international collaborations that span career stages and nations. Their projections have had a wide impact on the global community, serving as the basis for policy and adaptation discussions. We recognize the impact and leadership provided by the entire ISMIP6 team and its service to the glaciological and wider communities.”
ISMIP6 activities
ISMIP6 Standalone Ice Sheet Experiments
These pages describe the experimental setup for the standalone ice sheet model simulations. ISMIP6 standalone ice sheet modeling focusses on gaining insight into the uncertainty in ice sheet evolution resulting from the choice of initialization methods (the initMIP efforts for the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets), understanding the response of the Antarctic ice sheet to a total loss of the ice shelves (ABUMIP), as well as projections of ice sheet evolution for the 21st century. ISMIP6 managed its goal of delivering projections from dynamic ice sheet models in time for IPCC AR6. Because of the delay in CMIP6 and the availability of dataset from CMIP6 climate models, many of the core simulations for the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet had to use CMIP5 datasets.
Greenland
initMIP-Greenland focuses on detailed description of the ISMIP6 Standalone Ice Sheet experiments for the initialization for Greenland.
ISMIP6-Projections-Greenland focuses on detailed description of the ISMIP6 Standalone Ice Sheet experiments protocols for projections of the Greenland ice sheet evolution.
Antarctica
initMIP-Antarctica focuses on the more detailed description of the ISMIP6 Standalone Ice Sheet experiments for the initialization for Antarctica.
ABUMIP-Antarctica focuses on understanding the response of the Antarctic ice sheet to weakening and loss of the shelves.
ISMIP6-Projections-Antarctica focuses on detailed description of the ISMIP6 Standalone Ice Sheet experiments protocols for projections of the Antarctic ice sheet evolution.
ISMIP6-Projections2300-Antarctica focuses on detailed description of the ISMIP6 2300 Projections experiments protocols for projections of the Antarctic ice sheet evolution extended to 2300.
ISMIP6 Coupled Ice Sheet Climate Experiments
The ISMIP6-Coupled-Ice-Sheet-Climate-Experiments page describes the experimental setup for the coupled ice sheet-climate model simulations.
ISMIP6 Meetings
The Meetings page indicates when and where our next meeting will be!
ISMIP6 resources
Datasets
The Datasets-for-whole-ice-sheet-models page provides suggestions for datasets that are used in the initialization of ice sheet models, but you can use different datasets and still participate in ISMIP6. Note that the CMIP5 and CMIP6 climate datasets used by ISMIP6 for its projections are distributed via Ghub on the Data pages. These are freely available.
ISMIP6 logos
Use this page to download ISMIP6 logos.
ISMIP6 Publications
The Publications page list publications related to ISMIP6, as well as guidance for how to acknowledge the many different ISMIP6 participants in your own publications when using ISMIP6 datasets.
Please contact us if you would like your publication to be listed here too!
ISMIP6 Participants
ISMIP6 is a community effort that involves scientists interested in the polar regions, ranging from experts in polar remote sensing to modeling. If you would like to be involved in ISMIP6, please email ismip6-at-gmail.com. The co-chairs of steering committee for ISMIP6 includes Sophie Nowicki, Eric Larour, and Tony Payne. The steering committee members are Helene Seroussi, Heiko Goelzer, Andrew Shepard, William Lipscomb, Jonathan Gregory, and Ayako Abe Ouchi. A big thank you to our members contributing to the numerical simulations!
Greenland Standalone Ice Sheet Modeling
| Contributors | Model | Group ID | Group |
| Nick Golledge | PISM | ARC | Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, NZ |
| Martin Rückamp,Angelika Humbert | ISSM | AWI | Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, DE /University of Bremen, DE |
| Victoria Lee, Tony Payne | BISICLES | BGC | University of Bristol, Bristol, UK |
| Christian Rodehacke | PISM | DMI | Danish Meteorological Institute, DK |
| Ralf Greve | SICOPOLIS | ILTS | Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, JP |
| Ralf Greve, Reinhard Calov | SICOPOLIS | ILTS_PIK | Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, JP / Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, DE |
| Heiko Goelzer, Roderik van de Wal | IMAUICE | IMAU | Utrecht University, Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (IMAU), Utrecht, NL |
| Helene Seroussi, Nicole Schlegel | ISSM | JPL | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, USA |
| William Lipscomb, Joseph H. Kennedy | CISM | LANL | National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA / Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA |
| Fabien Gillet-Chaulet, Olivier Gagliardini | Elmer | LGGE | Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l’Environnement, FR |
| GRISLI | LSCE | Laboratoire des sciences du climat et de l’environnement, FR | |
| Fuyuki Saito, Ayako Abe-Ouchi | IcIES | MIROC | Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, JP / The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, JP |
| Florian Ziemen | PISM | MPIM | Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, DE |
| Andy Aschwanden | PISM | UAF | Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, USA |
| Helene Seroussi, Mathieu Morlighem | ISSM | UCIJPL | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, USA / University of California Irvine, Irvine, USA |
| Sainan Sun and Frank Pattyn | FETISH | ULB | Laboratoire de Glaciologie, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, BE |
| Philippe Huybrechts, Heiko Goelzer | GISM | VUB | Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, BE |
Antarctica Standalone Ice Sheet Modeling
| Contributors | Model | Group ID | Group |
| Nick Golledge | PISM | ARC | Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, NZ |
| Thomas Kleiner, Johannes Sutter, Angelika Humbert | PISM | AWI | Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, DE /University of Bremen, DE |
| Stephen Cornford | BISICLESPRELIM | CPOM | University of Bristol, Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, UK |
| Christian Rodehacke | PISM0 | DMI | Danish Meteorological Institute, Arctic and Climate, DK |
| Fabien Gillet-Chaulet | ELMER | IGE | Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l’Environnement, FR |
| Ralf Greve | SICOPOLIS | ILTS | Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, JP |
| Heiko Goelzer, Roderik van de Wal, Thomas Reerink | IMAUICE64 | IMAU | Utrecht University, Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (IMAU), Utrecht, NL |
| Nicole Schlegel, Helene Seroussi | ISSM | JPL | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, USA |
| Stephen Price, Matthew Hoffman, Tong Zhang | MALI | LANL | Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, USA |
| Aurélien Quiquet, Christophe Dumas | GRISLI | LSCE | Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement,Université Paris-Saclay, France |
| William Lipscomb, Gunter Leguy | CISM | NCAR | National Center for Atmospheric Research |
| Torsten Albrecht | PISM3PAL | PIK | Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, DE |
| David Pollard | EQNOMEC,GLNOMEC | PSU | Pennsylvania State University EMS Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Helene Seroussi,Mathieu Morlighem | ISSM | UCIJPL | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, USA / University of California Irvine, Irvine, USA |
| Sainan Sun and Frank Pattyn | FETISH | ULB | Laboratoire de Glaciologie, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, BE |
| Jonas Van Breedam, Philippe Huybrechts | AISMPALEO | VUB | Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, BE |
Climate Modeling Centers
Climate modeling centers that have expressed an interest in ISMIP6.
| Climate mode | Ice-sheet model | Institute/country |
| CanESM | None | CCCma/CA |
| CESM2 | CISM | NCAR-LANL/USA |
| CNRM-CM | GRISLI | CNRM/FR |
| EC-Earth | GrIS | DMI/DK |
| GISS | PISM | NASA-GISS/USA |
| INMCM | VUB | INM/RU |
| IPSL-CM6 | GRISLI | IPSL/FR |
| MIROC-ESM | IcIES | AORI-UT-JAMSTEC-NIES/JP |
| MPI-ESM | PISM | MPI/DE |
| UKESM | BISICLES | MetOffice/UK |
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