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Abstract The Greenland ice sheet is modelled to simulate its extent and volume in warmer climates, and to find out whether the ice sheet would re-form on the ice-free bedrock under present climatic conditions. The ice-sheet model is a three-dimensional thermo-mechanical model with a fine-resolution grid. The bedrock surface beneath the ice sheet was mapped using radio-echo-sounding measurements by the Electromagnetic Institute, Copenhagen. The model experiments show that increased temperature will result in ice-margin retreat, but the ice sheet is relatively stable; it takes a temperature rise of at least 6 deg for the ice sheet to disappear completely, which indicates that the ice sheet probably survived the last interglacial. Furthermore, it appears that the Greenland ice sheet is not a mere relict ice mass from a previously colder climate but that the ice sheet will still re-form on the bare bedrock under the present, or even slightly warmer, climatic conditions.
Letréguilly et al. (Tue,) studied this question.