Simulating the surface energy and mass balance of Greenland with an intermediate complexity approach

Greenland's contribution to global sea level rise is uncertain both in speed and timing, mainly because of our poor understanding of the many processes involved like refreezing, snow metamorphism, or snow-albedo changes. Here, we aim to provide a physically-based energy balance approach incorporating these processes to tackle their long-term effect on the Greenland ice-sheet. For these time scales, we need a computationally fast, though accurate model representing the most essential surface processes, i.e., melting and refreezing of snow and ice, or surface albedo changes. Our proposed coupled intermediate complexity framework consists of the atmosphere model REMBOv.2 and the ice-sheet model SICOPOLIS, both coupled to the surface energy and mass balance and model. We validate our uncoupled model against present-day regional climate model simulations and compare results under different RCP scenarios. These tests provide a basis for coupled long-term simulations of the Greenland ice sheet, suited for paleo applications and future melt estimates.