Greenland Ice Sheet simulations over the long-term under different temperature (greenhouse gas emissions) scenarios

The Greenland Ice Sheet is expected to melt faster than it is melting now, but no current models are able to provide details of how it will respond to further Arctic warming. Models run over longer timescales show how the Greenland Ice Sheet might retreat by 5000 AD, with summer temperature increases no higher than 5 centigrades. These models capture an accelerating loss in the late stages of retreat, as the centre of the Greenland Ice Sheet collapses. However, they suffer from a very incomplete understanding of the interactions between the ice sheet, the oceans and the atmosphere. More research is needed to make these projections more certain.