Enabling ice sheet models to capture centennial-scale solid Earth feedback with relative ease and sufficient accuracy

Abstract

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 centennial-scale sea level projections remain largely unexplored. This paper introduces a simple method that enables ice sheet models to address this limitation by capturing GRD effects with relative ease and sufficient accuracy. The proposed method uses precomputed Green's functions for a suite of radially symmetric Earth models and convolves them with mass changes within the ice sheet model. This approach straightforwardly retrieves the induced geoid and bedrock topography fields, paving the way for efficient coupling between ice sheet dynamics and leading-order solid Earth response on decadal to centennial timescales.