Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-c8zdz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T22:26:48.731Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Causes of model–data discrepancies in European climate during oxygen isotope stage 3 with insights from the last glacial maximum☆

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

David Pollard  and
Eric J. Barron
David Pollard*
Affiliation:
EMS Environment Institute, 2217 Earth-Engineering Sciences Building, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
Eric J. Barron
Affiliation:
EMS Environment Institute, 2217 Earth-Engineering Sciences Building, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: +1-814-865-3191. E-mail address: pollard@essc.psu.edu (D. Pollard).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Oxygen isotope stage 3 (OIS 3), encompassing the long middle section of the last glacial interval, has been the focus of an intensive high-resolution climate modeling effort for Europe. These model simulations produce substantially colder climates than modern simulations; however, the temperatures appear warmer than many proxy indicators suggest. In order to evaluate the importance of the model boundary conditions, comparable simulations are completed for the last glacial maximum (LGM). The LGM simulation produces a much colder European continent than OIS 3, despite similarities in the specification of sea-surface temperatures (SSTs). Ice-sheet dimension is evidently a key factor in explaining the difference in European climates over the past 40,000 yr. However, underestimates in specified OIS 3 ice sheets cannot be invoked to explain the discrepancies, since data strongly indicate small ice-sheet extents at that time; this leaves errors in specified OIS 3 SSTs as the most likely cause.

Keywords

Stage 3OIS 3Glacial climateRegional climate modelEurope

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 59 , Issue 1 , January 2003 , pp. 108 - 113
Copyright
Elsevier Science (USA)

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

☆

This contribution is one of a series of articles reporting the results of the Stage 3 project (van Andel, 2002). See the Stage 3 website for details and databases at http://www.esc.cam.ac.uk/oistage3/Details/Homepage.html.

References

Arnold, N.S., Van Andel, T.H., and Valen, V. Extent and dynamics of the Scandinavian ice sheet during Oxygen Isotope Stage 3 (65,000–25,000 yr B.P.). Quaternary Research 57, (2002). 38 48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barron, E.J., and Pollard, D. (2002). High-resolution climate simulations of oxygen Isotope Stage 3 in Europe. Quaternary Research 57, in press CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broccoli, A.J. Tropical cooling at the Last Glacial Maximum. an atmospheric mixed-layer ocean model simulation. Journal of Climate 13, (2000). 951 976.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CLIMAP (Climate: Long-Range Investigation, Mapping and Prediction Project) Members Seasonal Reconstructions of the Earth’s Surface at the Last Glacial Maximum. (1981). Geological Society of America, Boulder, Col.Google Scholar
Crowley, T.J., and Baum, S.K. Effect of vegetation on an ice-age climate model simulation. Journal of Geophysical Research D 102, 14 (1997). 16463 16480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giorgi, F., Marrinucci, M.R., and Bates, G.T. Development of a second generation regional climate model (RegCM2). Part I. Boundary-layer and radiative transfer processes. Monthly Weather Review 121, (1993). 2794 2813.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giorgi, F., Marrinucci, M.R., and Bates, G.T. Development of a second generation regional climate model (RegCM2). Part II. Convective processes and assimilation of lateral boundary conditions. Monthly Weather Review 121, (1993). 2814 2832.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, N.M.J., Valdes, P.J., and Dong, B. The maintenance of the last great ice sheets. a UGAMP GCM study. Journal of Climate 9, (1996). 1004 1019.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haxeltine, A., and Prentice, I.C. BIOME3: an equilibrium terrestrial biosphere model based on ecophysical constraints, resource availability, and competition among plant functional types. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 10, (1996). 693 709.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hewitt, C.D., Broccoli, A.J., Mitchell, J.F.B., and Stouffer, R.J. A coupled model study of the Last Glacial Maximum: was part of the North Atlantic relatively warm? Geophysical Research Letters. 28, 1571–1574. Climate Dynamics 13, (2001). 821 834.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kageyama, M., and Valdes, P.J. Impact of the North American ice-sheet orography on the Last Glacial Maximum eddies and snowfall. Geophysical Research Letters 27, (2000). 1515 1518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kageyama, M., Valdes, P.J., Ramstein, G., Hewitt, C., and Wyputta, U. Northern hemisphere storm tracks in present day and Last Glacial Maximum climate simulations. a comparison of the European PMIP models. Journal of Climate 12, (1999). 742 760.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kageyama, M., Peyrion, O., Pinot, S., Tarasov, P., Guiot, J., Joussaume, S., and Ramstein, G. The Last Glacial Maximum climate over Europe and western Siberia. a PMIP comparison between models and data. Climate Dynamics 17, (2001). 23 43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E., and Wright, H.E. Simulation of the climate of 18,000 years BP. Results for the North American/North Atlantic/European sector and comparison with the geologic record of North America. Quaternary Science Reviews 4, (1985). 147 187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manabe, S., and Broccoli, A.J. The influence of continental ice sheets on the climate of an Ice Age. Journal of Geophysical Research 90, (1985). 2167 2190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollard, D., and Thompson, S.L. Climate and ice-sheet mass balance at the Last Glacial Maximum from the GENESIS version 2 global climate model. Quaternary Science Reviews 16, (1997). 841 863.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rind, D. Components of the ice-age circulation. Journal of Geophyical Research 92, (1987). 4241 4281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shinn, R.A., and Barron, E.J. Climate sensitivity to continental ice sheet size and configuration. Journal of Climate 2, 12 (1989). 1517 1537.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, S.L., and Pollard, D. Greenland and Antarctic mass balances for present and doubled atmospheric CO2 from the GENESIS version 2 global climate model. Journal of Climate 10, (1997). 871 900.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Andel, T.H. Reconstructing climate and landscape of the last mid-pleniglacial in Europe - the stage 3 project. Quaternary Research 57, (2002). 2 8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Andel, T.H., and Tzedakis, P.C. Palaeolithic landscapes of Europe and environs, 150,000–25,000 years ago. Quaternary Science Reviews 15, (1996). 481 500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar