Simulation of the last glacial cycle with a coupled climate ice-sheet model of intermediate complexity

Ganopolski, Andrey; Calov, Reinhard; Claußen, Martin

doi:10.5194/cp-6-229-2010

Cited by 185 publications

(277 citation statements)

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“…As was shown by Ganopolski et al (2010), simulation of a complete glacial termination, even with the prescribed GHG forcing, is only possible when the deposition of glaciogenic dust is taken into account. This is even more important in the case of a constant CO 2 concentration.…”

Section: Experiments With Constant Comentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As discussed by Ganopolski et al (2010), both the magnitude and temporal dynamics of the simulated glacial cycles are very sensitive to the choice of model parameters, in particular, related to surface mass balance, basal sliding, and glaciogenic dust. It was also shown that without enhanced dust deposition, complete deglaciation is not achieved in the model.…”

Section: Baseline Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ice sheet model is only applied to the Northern Hemisphere and is coupled to the climate component via a high-resolution, physically-based surface energy and mass balance interface , which explicitly accounts for the effect of aeolian dust deposition on snow albedo. Here we use the same model and experimental setup as Ganopolski et al (2010) but extended it to simulate glacial cycles over the past 800 000 years.…”

Section: Model Description and Experimental Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Their concentrations were derived from the Antarctic ice cores (Petit et al, 1999;EPICA, 2004). The method used to calculate the equivalent CO 2 concentration is described by Ganopolski et al (2010). A continuous record of N 2 O is not available for the last 800 kyr, but existing data suggest that, to the first approximation, the N 2 O concentration has a temporal dynamic similar to CO 2 .…”

Section: Model Description and Experimental Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While coupled GCMs still remain too expensive for simulating glacial cycles, models of intermediate complexity (EMICs, Claussen et al, 2002) can be coupled to 3-D ice sheet models and are sufficiently computationally efficient to perform simulations of glacial cycles. Using CLIMBER-2 coupled to different ice sheet models, Bonelli et al (2009) and Ganopolski et al (2010) performed simulations of the last glacial cycles; Calov and Ganopolski (2005) analysed the stability of the climate-cryosphere system in the phase space of Milankovitch forcing and Bauer and Ganopolski (2010) reported simulations of the last four glacial cycles. Here we will present a large suite of simulations for the last 800 kyr, a period of time dominated by 100 kyr cyclicity.…”

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confidence: 99%

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The role of orbital forcing, carbon dioxide and regolith in 100 kyr glacial cycles

2011

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Abstract. The origin of the 100 kyr cyclicity, which dominates ice volume variations and other climate records over the past million years, remains debatable. Here, using a comprehensive Earth system model of intermediate complexity, we demonstrate that both strong 100 kyr periodicity in the ice volume variations and the timing of glacial terminations during past 800 kyr can be successfully simulated as direct, strongly nonlinear responses of the climate-cryosphere system to orbital forcing alone, if the atmospheric CO 2 concentration stays below its typical interglacial value. The existence of long glacial cycles is primarily attributed to the North American ice sheet and requires the presence of a large continental area with exposed rocks. We show that the sharp, 100 kyr peak in the power spectrum of ice volume results from the long glacial cycles being synchronized with the Earth's orbital eccentricity. Although 100 kyr cyclicity can be simulated with a constant CO 2 concentration, temporal variability in the CO 2 concentration plays an important role in the amplification of the 100 kyr cycles.

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Section: Experiments With Constant Comentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Baseline Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Model Description and Experimental Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Model Description and Experimental Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of orbital forcing, carbon dioxide and regolith in 100 kyr glacial cycles

2011

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European glacial dust deposits: Geochemical constraints on atmospheric dust cycle modeling

Rousseau

Chauvel

Sima

et al. 2014

Geophysical Research Letters

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For a long time global paleodust numerical simulations have greatly underestimated dust sources other than modern deserts. Recent modeling experiments incorporating glaciogenic sources of dust have positively improved the agreement between model and paleodust data. This highlights the importance of accurately representing all areas potentially subjected to deflation during an investigated interval. Geochemical results, obtained from European loess sequences collected along a 50°N transect, combined with dust emission simulations reveal the geographical distribution of the most important European dust sources between 34 ka and 18 ka. We demonstrate that most European dust traveled only a few hundred kilometers or less within the boundary layer from its source before deposition. We conclude that our results encourage acquisition of similar geochemical data for other relevant areas in the world. Further, they could provide critical constraints to benchmark atmospheric models, contributing to improve their performance in simulating dust cycle and associated climate feedbacks.

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Interglacials of the last 800,000 years

2016

Reviews of Geophysics

396

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Interglacials, including the present (Holocene) period, are warm, low land ice extent (high sea level), end-members of glacial cycles. Based on a sea level definition, we identify eleven interglacials in the last 800,000 years, a result that is robust to alternative definitions. Data compilations suggest that despite spatial heterogeneity, Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 5e (last interglacial) and 11c (~400 ka ago) were globally strong (warm), while MIS 13a (~500 ka ago) was cool at many locations. A step change in strength of interglacials at 450 ka is apparent only in atmospheric CO 2 and in Antarctic and deep ocean temperature. The onset of an interglacial (glacial termination) seems to require a reducing precession parameter (increasing Northern Hemisphere summer insolation), but this condition alone is insufficient. Terminations involve rapid, nonlinear, reactions of ice volume, CO 2 , and temperature to external astronomical forcing. The precise timing of events may be modulated by millennial-scale climate change that can lead to a contrasting timing of maximum interglacial intensity in each hemisphere. A variety of temporal trends is observed, such that maxima in the main records are observed either early or late in different interglacials. The end of an interglacial (glacial inception) is a slower process involving a global sequence of changes. Interglacials have been typically 10-30 ka long. The combination of minimal reduction in northern summer insolation over the next few orbital cycles, owing to low eccentricity, and high atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations implies that the next glacial inception is many tens of millennia in the future. Introduction-Interglacials of the Last 800 kaEarth's climate of the last 800 ka (1 ka = 1000 years) is the latest stage in a slow cooling that has been in progress for the last~50 Ma (1 Ma = 1 million years) [Zachos et al., 2008]. During this cooling, ice sheets formed on the Antarctic continent~40 Ma ago, while the first signs of Northern Hemisphere (NH) glaciation appeared much more recently. Only at the start of the Quaternary Period and the Pleistocene Epoch,~2.6 Ma ago, did alternations between cold glacial periods with ice on the NH continents, and warmer intervals with little or no NH continental ice, first appear, reflected in the appearance of ice-rafted debris Kleiven et al., 2002] and in enhanced amplitude of cyclicity in benthic oxygen isotopes in marine sediment records (Figure 1) [Lisiecki and Raymo, 2005].Somewhere between 1.2 and 0.6 Ma ago, weaker cycles with a period of~40 ka gave way to stronger (greater isotopic amplitude) cycles with a recurrence period closer to 100 ka. This change is known as the Mid-Pleistocene Transition or Revolution. Its exact date is debated, and it is likely that different aspects of climate shifted into their new mode of operation at different times [Mudelsee and Schulz, 1997;Rutherford and D'Hondt, 2000;Clark et al., 2006;Elderfield et al., 2012]. By 800 ka ago, the change in amplitude was complete in most re...

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Simulation of the last glacial cycle with a coupled climate ice-sheet model of intermediate complexity

Cited by 185 publications

References 47 publications

The role of orbital forcing, carbon dioxide and regolith in 100 kyr glacial cycles

The role of orbital forcing, carbon dioxide and regolith in 100 kyr glacial cycles

European glacial dust deposits: Geochemical constraints on atmospheric dust cycle modeling

Interglacials of the last 800,000 years

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