Status: this preprint is open for discussion and under review for The Cryosphere (TC).
Enabling ice sheet models to capture solid Earth feedback with ease and accuracy
Surendra Adhikari,Lambert Caron,Holly K. Han,Luc Houriez,Eric Larour,and Erik Ivins
Abstract. There is a growing consensus on the critical role that solid Earth processes play in influencing marine ice sheet dynamics over centennial timescales. A large body of literature shows that the feedback mechanisms associated with the solid Earth's gravitational, rotational, and deformational (GRD) response to ice mass loss slow the progression of ice sheet instabilities. However, due to the limited availability of efficient coupled system models, the specific characteristics of the feedback mechanisms, their sensitivities to ice sheet processes, and their impacts on sea level projections remain largely unexplored. This paper introduces a straightforward method that enables ice sheet models to address this limitation by capturing GRD effects with virtually no additional software development and computational costs. The proposed method utilizes precomputed Green's functions and convolves these with ice mass changes within the ice sheet model primarily via matrix multiplication. This approach straightforwardly and accurately retrieves induced geoid and bedrock topography fields and paves the way for efficient coupling between ice sheet dynamics and leading-order solid Earth processes.
Received: 23 Jul 2025 – Discussion started: 04 Oct 2025
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Surendra Adhikari,Lambert Caron,Holly K. Han,Luc Houriez,Eric Larour,and Erik Ivins
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Love numbers and Greens functions for a suite of radially-symmetric stratified Maxwell EarthSurendra Adhikari and Lambert Caron https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/PVDKYI
Surendra Adhikari,Lambert Caron,Holly K. Han,Luc Houriez,Eric Larour,and Erik Ivins
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We present an efficient way of coupling ice sheet and solid Earth models, targeting ice sheet modelers with little knowledge of and interest in glacial isostatic adjustment processes. We distill solid Earth response signals into "Green's functions," which can be convolved with the spatiotemporal pattern of modeled ice mass change using simple matrix multiplication. The manuscript is timely and encourages greater participation with coupled ice/Earth simulations in the ongoing ISMIP effort.
We present an efficient way of coupling ice sheet and solid Earth models, targeting ice sheet...