PP13E-03
Signatures of climate variability in water stable isotopes across the globe modeled for the past millennium
Monday, 14 December 2015: 14:10
2012 (Moscone West)
Jesper Sjolte1, Christophe Sturm2, Martin Werner3, Gerrit Lohmann4, Valérie Masson-Delmotte5 and Raimund Muscheler1, (1)Lund University, Geology, Lund, Sweden, (2)Stockholm University, Department of Geological Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden, (3)Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz-Center for Polar and Marine Research Bremerhaven, Bremerhaven, Germany, (4)Alfred Wegener Institute for P, Bremerhaven, Germany, (5)Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, Paris, France
Abstract:
Geological records of water stable isotopes ranging from the tropics to the poles are some of the most important sources for understanding past climate variability. Enabling fractionation of water stable isotopes in the hydrological cycle of Earth System Models (ESMs) provides a theoretical framework for understanding the climate signal in paleoclimatic isotope records and testing hypothesis of climate change. Here we present a 1200-year long simulation driven by natural and anthropogenic forcings, making the simulation equivalent to the standard ESM simulations of the past millennium. We investigate the main climatic signals and processes that drive the composition of the modeled water stable isotopes in key regions of paleoclimate archives such as Greenland, South East Asia and Antarctica. This includes the influence of the major atmospheric circulation patterns at mid and high latitudes, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation and Antarctic Oscillation, and the monsoon systems at the low latitudes. In connection with these patterns we discuss atmosphere-ocean interactions and the time scales of the different climate modes and their signature in water stable isotopes in precipitation.
