1. Precise interpolar phasing of abrupt climate change during the last ice age
- Author
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Peter Neff, Thomas E. Woodruff, Nelia W. Dunbar, Shaun A. Marcott, Eric J. Steig, Joel B Pedro, Chris J. Gibson, Kristina Slawny, R. C. Bay, Edward J. Brook, Howard Conway, B. G. Koffman, Daniel Baggenstos, Joan J. Fitzpatrick, Joseph M. Souney, Nicolai B. Mortensen, Andrew J. Schauer, Stephanie Gregory, Erin C. Pettit, Richard B. Alley, Spruce W. Schoenemann, Richard M. Nunn, Bruce H. Vaughn, Tyler R. Jones, Michael Sigl, Alexander J. Shturmakov, John M. Fegyveresi, Mai Winstrup, Mark S. Twickler, Todd Sowers, Nels Iverson, Karl J. Kreutz, James W. C. White, Kunihiko Nishiizumi, Kurt M. Cuffey, Geoffrey M. Hargreaves, T. K. Bauska, Edwin D. Waddington, Jinho Ahn, Matthew J. Kippenhan, Bradley R. Markle, P. Buford Price, Vasileios Gkinis, Tanner W. Kuhl, Nathan Chellman, J. S. Edwards, Logan Mitchell, G. J. Wong, Anthony W. Wendricks, Joshua J. Goetz, Kees C. Welten, Rachael H. Rhodes, Olivia J. Maselli, Tyler J. Fudge, Gary D. Clow, Jihong Cole-Dai, Jeffrey P. Severinghaus, Brian B. Bencivengo, Joseph R. McConnell, Charles R. Bentley, Julia Rosen, Kenneth C. McGwire, Eric D. Cravens, Betty Adrian, Mary R. Albert, D. G. Ferris, John C. Priscu, M. K. Spencer, Daniel R. Pasteris, M. Kalk, Donald A. Lebar, Anais Orsi, James E. Lee, Jay A. Johnson, Paul J. Sendelbach, Donald E. Voigt, Christo Buizert, Kendrick C. Taylor, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), University of California [San Diego] (UC San Diego), University of California-University of California, College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences [Corvallis] (CEOAS), Oregon State University (OSU), Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry [Brookings], South Dakota State University (SDSTATE), New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology [New Mexico Tech] (NMT), University of Michigan [Ann Arbor], University of Michigan System, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), Columbia University [New York], Climate Change Institute [Orono] (CCI), University of Maine, Johannes Gutenberg - Universität Mainz (JGU), University of Washington [Seattle], Desert Research Institute (DRI), Space Sciences Laboratory [Berkeley] (SSL), University of California [Berkeley], Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette] (LSCE), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ), Glaces et Continents, Climats et Isotopes Stables (GLACCIOS), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ), Laboratory of Radio- and Environmental Chemistry [Villigen], Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI), Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), Penn State System-Penn State System, Purdue University [West Lafayette], Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO - UC San Diego), University of California (UC)-University of California (UC), Johannes Gutenberg - Universität Mainz = Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU), University of California [Berkeley] (UC Berkeley), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
[SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean, Atmosphere ,010506 paleontology ,Multidisciplinary ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,fungi ,Northern Hemisphere ,01 natural sciences ,Latitude ,Ice-sheet model ,Oceanography ,Ice core ,13. Climate action ,Climatology ,Ice age ,Abrupt climate change ,[SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces, environment ,Southern Hemisphere ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS ,Geology ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences - Abstract
The last glacial period exhibited abrupt Dansgaard-Oeschger climatic oscillations, evidence of which is preserved in a variety of Northern Hemisphere palaeoclimate archives. Ice cores show that Antarctica cooled during the warm phases of the Greenland Dansgaard-Oeschger cycle and vice versa, suggesting an interhemispheric redistribution of heat through a mechanism called the bipolar seesaw. Variations in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) strength are thought to have been important, but much uncertainty remains regarding the dynamics and trigger of these abrupt events. Key information is contained in the relative phasing of hemispheric climate variations, yet the large, poorly constrained difference between gas age and ice age and the relatively low resolution of methane records from Antarctic ice cores have so far precluded methane-based synchronization at the required sub-centennial precision. Here we use a recently drilled high-accumulation Antarctic ice core to show that, on average, abrupt Greenland warming leads the corresponding Antarctic cooling onset by 218 ± 92 years (2σ) for Dansgaard-Oeschger events, including the Bølling event; Greenland cooling leads the corresponding onset of Antarctic warming by 208 ± 96 years. Our results demonstrate a north-to-south directionality of the abrupt climatic signal, which is propagated to the Southern Hemisphere high latitudes by oceanic rather than atmospheric processes. The similar interpolar phasing of warming and cooling transitions suggests that the transfer time of the climatic signal is independent of the AMOC background state. Our findings confirm a central role for ocean circulation in the bipolar seesaw and provide clear criteria for assessing hypotheses and model simulations of Dansgaard-Oeschger dynamics.
- Published
- 2014
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