Climatology - Northern hemisphere ice-sheet influences on global climate change

Large ice sheets actively interact with the rest of the climate system by a mplifying, pacing, and potentially driving global climate change over sever al time scales. Direct and indirect influences of ice sheets on climate cau se changes in ocean surface temperatures, ocean circulation, continental wa ter balance, vegetation,a nd land-surface albedo, which in turn cause addit ional feedbacks in the climate system and help to synchronize global climat e change. The effect of the underlying geological substrate on ice-sheet dy namics may be the missing link in understanding the ice sheet-climate inter actions that are integral to the middle Pleistocene transition; the 100,000 -year climate cycle; high-amplitude, millennial-scale climate variability; and low-aspect ratio ice sheets of the Last Glacial Maximum.