scholarly journals Antarctic surface temperature and elevation during the Last Glacial Maximum

Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 372 (6546) ◽  
pp. 1097-1101
Author(s):  
Christo Buizert ◽  
T. J. Fudge ◽  
William H. G. Roberts ◽  
Eric J. Steig ◽  
Sam Sherriff-Tadano ◽  
...  

Water-stable isotopes in polar ice cores are a widely used temperature proxy in paleoclimate reconstruction, yet calibration remains challenging in East Antarctica. Here, we reconstruct the magnitude and spatial pattern of Last Glacial Maximum surface cooling in Antarctica using borehole thermometry and firn properties in seven ice cores. West Antarctic sites cooled ~10°C relative to the preindustrial period. East Antarctic sites show a range from ~4° to ~7°C cooling, which is consistent with the results of global climate models when the effects of topographic changes indicated with ice core air-content data are included, but less than those indicated with the use of water-stable isotopes calibrated against modern spatial gradients. An altered Antarctic temperature inversion during the glacial reconciles our estimates with water-isotope observations.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Donohoe ◽  
Alyssa R Atwood ◽  
David S Battisti

Abstract The zonal and annual mean tropical precipitation response to paleoclimate and anthropogenic forcing scenarios ranging from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), CO2 quadrupling (4XCO2 ), mid-Holocene, North Atlantic freshwater hosing and volcanic forcing is analyzed in an ensemble of global climate models. Zonally averaged tropical precipitation changes are characterized in terms of three geometric manipulations of the climatological precipitation (hereafter, modes): meridional shifts, intensifications, and meridional contractions. We employ an optimization procedure that quantifies the magnitude and robustness (across different models) of changes in each mode in response to each forcing type. Additionally, the fraction of precipitation changes that are explained by the modes (in isolation and combined) is quantified. Shifts are generally less than 1º latitude in magnitude and explain a small fraction (<10%) of tropical precipitation changes. Contractions and intensifications are strongly anti-correlated across all simulations with a robust intensification and contraction of precipitation under global warming and a robust reduction and expansion under global cooling during the Last Glacial Maximum. The near constant scaling between contractions and intensifications across all simulations is used to define a joint contraction/intensification (CI) mode of tropical precipitation. The CI mode explains nearly 50% of the precipitation change under 4XCO2 and LGM forcing by optimizing a single parameter. These results suggest the shifting mode that has been extensively used to interpret paleo-rainfall reconstructions is of limited use for characterizing forced zonal mean precipitation changes and advocates for a reinterpretation of past precipitation changes to account for the CI mode


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 1293-1346 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Braconnot ◽  
B. Otto-Bliesner ◽  
S. Harrison ◽  
S. Joussaume ◽  
J.-Y. Peterchmitt ◽  
...  

Abstract. A set of coupled ocean-atmosphere simulations using state of the art climate models is now available for the Last Glacial Maximum and the mid-Holocene through the second phase of the Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP2). This study presents the large scale features of the simulated climates and compares the new model results to those of the atmospheric models from the first phase of the PMIP, for which sea surface temperature was prescribed or computed using simple slab ocean formulations. We consider first the large scale features of the climate change, pointing out some of the major differences between the different sets of experiments. Then we quantify the latitudinal shift of the location of the ITCZ in the tropical regions during boreal summer. It is shown that this shift is limited for LGM, whereas a northward shift and an increase of precipitation are well depicted for mid-Holocene in continental regions affected by monsoon precipitation. In the last part we quantify for both periods the feedback from snow and sea-ice in mid and high latitudes. We show that it contributes for half of the cooling in the northern hemisphere for LGM, the second half being achieved by the reduced CO2 and water vapour in the atmosphere. For mid-Holocene the snow and albedo feedbacks strengthen spring cooling and enhance boreal summer warming, whereas water vapour reinforces the late summer warming. These feedbacks are modest in the southern hemisphere. For LGM most of the surface cooling is due to CO2 and water vapour.


2009 ◽  
Vol 55 (191) ◽  
pp. 552-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshinori Iizuka ◽  
Takayuki Miyake ◽  
Motohiro Hirabayashi ◽  
Toshitaka Suzuki ◽  
Sumito Matoba ◽  
...  

AbstractIn order to find environmental signals based on the dust and calcium-ion concentrations in ice cores, we determine the constituent elements of residue particles obtained after melting ice samples. We have designed a sublimating system that operates at −45°C, below the eutectic temperatures of major salts. This system permits us to obtain a great many non-volatile particles. After studying the non-volatile particles, we immersed them in water to remove soluble particles and compounds. We thereby analyzed a total of 1272 residue particles (from the melted sample), 2418 non-volatile particles (after sublimation) and 1463 insoluble particles taken from five sections of Last Glacial Maximum ice from the Dome Fuji (Antarctica) ice core. Their constituent elements were determined by scanning electron microscopy/energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDS) and compared to the dust, calcium-ion and sodium-ion concentrations measured by ion chromatography. Our results indicate that >99.9% of the insoluble particles contain silicon but no sulfur, nitrogen or chlorine. A significant number of the non-volatile particles, however, contain sulfur and chlorine. We conclude that insoluble dust consists mostly of silicate, that almost all calcium ions originate from calcium sulfate and that almost all sodium ions originate from sodium sulfate and sodium chloride.


1988 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 222-222
Author(s):  
D. Zardini ◽  
D. Raynaud ◽  
D. Scharffe ◽  
W. Seiler

A method has been developed for measuring N2O concentrations in the air extracted from the bubbles contained in ice cores. The air extraction is performed by cutting the ice into very small pieces with a rotating knife, in a controlled atmosphere. The N2O concentrations are measured by gas chromatography. The complete original procedure will be discussed, and the results of the different experimental tests given, with a discussion of the uncertainties.This method has been used to perform about 40 measurements on Antarctic ice samples. Ten air samples from the D57 core date approximately from the beginning of the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. The others were taken from the Dome C core and date from the Holocene and the period around the Last Glacial Maximum. The D57 results are in agreement with those of Pearman and others (1986), leading to a similar pre-industrial N2O level (270-290 ppb volume). Furthermore, our Dome C results suggest that during the Last Glacial Maximum atmospheric N2O content was not drastically different from the recent period.


2000 ◽  
Vol 46 (152) ◽  
pp. 15-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. W. Gillett ◽  
T. D. van Ommen ◽  
A.V. Jackson ◽  
G. P. Ayers

AbstractPeroxide speciation and formaldehyde measurements have been made on ice cores retrieved from Law Dome, Antarctica. Measurements were made for ice deposited during four different periods: modern, pre-industrial Holocene, early Holocene and Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The data show modern peroxide levels >50% above pre-industrial levels (at ∼1.6 μmol L−1) and an absence of methyl hydroperoxide (down to a detection threshold of 0.003 μmol L−1). Formaldehyde levels show a 40% increase from pre-industrial to modern times (rising from ∼0.07 μmol L−1 to ∼0.10 μmol L−1), with a further increase and possible seasonality near the surface which we associate with post-depositional processes. Peroxide levels in LGM ice are low, but formaldehyde concentrations are high (at ∼0.13 μmol L−1) relative to modern levels. Similar high levels of formaldehyde are seen in early Holocene ice (∼6900 years BP).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Paul ◽  
Alexandre Cauquoin ◽  
Stefan Mulitza ◽  
Thejna Tharammal ◽  
Martin Werner

&lt;p&gt;In simulations of the climate during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), we employ two different isotope-enabled atmospheric general circulation models (NCAR iCAM3 and MPI ECHAM6-wiso) and use simulated (by coupled climate models) as well as reconstructed (from a new global climatology of the ocean surface duing the LGM, GLOMAP) surface conditions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The resulting atmospheric fields reflect the more pronounced structure and gradients in the reconstructions, for example, the precipitation is more depleted in oxygen-18 in the high latitudes and more enriched in low latitudes, especially in the tropical convective regions over the maritime continent in the equatorial Pacific and Indian Oceans and over the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. Furthermore, at the sites of ice cores and speleothems, the model-data fit improves in terms of the coefficients of determination and root-mean square errors.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In additional sensitivity experiments, we also use the climatologies by Annan and Hargreaves (2013) and Tierney et al. (2020) and consider the impact of changes in reconstructed sea-ice extent and the global-mean sea-surface temperature.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Our findings imply that the correct simulation or reconstruction of patterns and gradients in sea-surface conditions are crucial for a successful comparison to oxygen-isotope data from ice cores and speleothems.&lt;/p&gt;


2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (12) ◽  
pp. 4348-4365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Korty ◽  
Suzana J. Camargo ◽  
Joseph Galewsky

Abstract Large-scale environmental factors that favor tropical cyclogenesis are calculated and examined in simulations of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) from the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project Phase 2 (PMIP2). Despite universally colder conditions at the LGM, values of tropical cyclone potential intensity, which both serves as an upper bound on thermodynamically achievable intensity and indicates regions supportive of the deep convection required, are broadly similar in magnitude to those in preindustrial era control simulation. Some regions, including large areas of the central and western North Pacific, feature higher potential intensities at the LGM than they do in the control runs, while other regions including much of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans are lower. Changes in potential intensity are strongly correlated with the degree of surface cooling during the LGM. Additionally, two thermodynamic parameters—one that measures midtropospheric entropy deficits relevant for tropical cyclogenesis and another related to the time required for genesis—are broadly more favorable in the LGM simulation than in the preindustrial era control. A genesis potential index yields higher values for the LGM in much of the western Pacific, a feature common to nearly all of the individual models examined.


1999 ◽  
Vol 104 (D13) ◽  
pp. 15895-15916 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Mahowald ◽  
Karen Kohfeld ◽  
Margaret Hansson ◽  
Yves Balkanski ◽  
Sandy P. Harrison ◽  
...  

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