Advances in numerical modelling of the Antarctic ice sheet

Abstract While geological evidence provides the clearest means to evaluate past Antarctic ice sheet change, quantification of the processes by which such change occurred can only be done through modelling. Continental-scale ice sheet modelling has been used extensively to understand how past ice sheets have responded to environmental forcing. Such work has revealed how past ice-sheet configurations are possible glaciologically and climatically, and the rates at which changes can occur. The past 10 years have seen considerable advances in numerical ice-sheet modelling, the data used to force and calibrate them, and in the identification of the glaciological processes needed to improve them. As a result, several studies have improved our understanding of how and why the Antarctic ice sheet has changed since its initiation ~34 Ma, with key episodes being the Pliocene, Pleistocene and Last Glacial Maximum. Here we review some of these advances as a guide to how ice sheet modelling is helping to shape our knowledge of how Antarctica responds to external forcing.