Influence of vegetation changes during the Last Glacial Maximum using the BMRC atmospheric general circulation model

 The influence of different vegetation distributions on the atmospheric circulation during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 21 000 years before present) is investigated. The atmospheric general circulation model of the Bureau of Meteorology Research Center was run using a modern vegetation and in a second experiment with a vegetation reconstruction for the LGM. It is found that a change from conifer to desert and tundra causes an additional LGM cooling of 1–2 °C in Western Europe, up to −4 °C in North America and −6 °C in Siberia. An expansion of dryland vegetation causes an additional annual cooling of 1–2 °C for Australia and northern Africa. On the other hand, an increase of temperature (2 °C) is found in Alaska due to changes in circulation. In the equatorial region the LGM vegetation leads to an increased modelled temperature of 0.5–1.5 °C and decreased precipitation (30%) over land due to a reduction of the tropical rainforest, mainly in Indonesia, where the reduction of precipitation over land is associated with an increase of precipitation of 30% over the western Pacific. Received: 15 December 1999 / Accepted: 10 January 2001     

Sensitivity of the Northern Hemisphere climate of the Last Glacial Maximum to sea surface temperatures

The role of prescribing sea surface temperature in paleoclimate atmospheric simulations has been investigated by comparing Last Glacial Maximum AGCMs experiments using different SSTs data sets as well as coupled atmosphere/oceanic mixed layer models. Changes in the SSTs and sea-ice margin generate different patterns of zonal asymmetries in the atmospheric circulation that are responsible for reorganisation of heat and moisture transport, leading to important variations of Northern Hemisphere regional climates, particularly in winter. Additional sensitivity experiments have been carried out to isolate the individual role of North Pacific and North Atlantic SSTs anomalies. We found that changes in North Pacific SSTs have a much stronger impact over all the northern continental surfaces, including Europe and Siberia, than changes in the North Atlantic SSTs. As these SSTs anomalies are of the order of the typical errors generated by coupled ocean-atmosphere models, this suggests that these more complete models will likely still have problems in simulating the regional climate change at the LGM. Received: 11 October 1999 / Accepted: 9 June 2000     

Pollen-based continental climate reconstructions at 6 and 21 ka: a global synthesis

Subfossil pollen and plant macrofossil data derived from ¹⁴C-dated sediment profiles can provide quantitative information on glacial and interglacial climates. The data allow climate variables related to growing-season warmth, winter cold, and plant-available moisture to be reconstructed. Continental-scale reconstructions have been made for the mid-Holocene (MH, around 6 ka) and Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, around 21 ka), allowing comparison with palaeoclimate simulations currently being carried out as part of the fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The synthesis of the available MH and LGM climate reconstructions and their uncertainties, obtained using modern-analogue, regression and model-inversion techniques, is presented for four temperature variables and two moisture variables. Reconstructions of the same variables based on surface-pollen assemblages are shown to be accurate and unbiased. Reconstructed LGM and MH climate anomaly patterns are coherent, consistent between variables, and robust with respect to the choice of technique. They support a conceptual model of the controls of Late Quaternary climate change whereby the first-order effects of orbital variations and greenhouse forcing on the seasonal cycle of temperature are predictably modified by responses of the atmospheric circulation and surface energy balance.     

High-resolution simulations of the last glacial maximum climate over Europe: a solution to discrepancies with continental palaeoclimatic reconstructions?

The analyses of low-resolution models simulations of the last glacial maximum (LGM, 21 kyr BP) climate have revealed a large discrepancy between all the models and pollen-based palaeoclimatic reconstructions. In general, the models are too warm relative to the observations, especially in winter, where the difference is of the order of 10°C over western Europe. One of the causes of this discrepancy may be related to the low spatial resolution of these models. To assess the impact of using high-resolution models on simulated climate sensitivity, we use three approaches to obtain high-resolution climate simulations over Europe: first an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) with a stretched grid over Europe, second a homogeneous T106 AGCM (high resolution everywhere on the globe) and last a limited area model (LAM) nested in a low-resolution AGCM. With all three methods, we have performed simulations of the European climate for present and LGM conditions, according to the experimental design recommended by the Palaeoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP). Model results have been compared with updated pollen-based palaeoclimatic indicators for temperature and precipitation that were initially developed in PMIP. For each model, a low-resolution global run was also performed. As expected, the low-resolution simulations underestimate the large cooling indicated by pollen data, especially in winter, despite revised slightly warmer reconstructions of the temperatures of the coldest month, and show results in the range of those obtained in PMIP with similar models. The two high-resolution AGCMs do not improve the temperature field and cannot account for the discrepancy between model results and data, especially in winter. However, they are able to reproduce trends in precipitation more closely than their low-resolution counterparts do, but the simulated climates are still not as arid as depicted by the data. Conversely, the LAM temperature results compare well with climate reconstructions in winter but the simulated hydrological cycle is not consistent with the data. Finally, these results are discussed in regard of other possible causes for discrepancies between models and palaeoclimatic reconstructions for the LGM European climate.     

Impact of vegetation changes on the dynamics of the atmosphere at the Last Glacial Maximum

Much work is under way to identify and quantify the feedbacks between vegetation and climate. Palaeoclimate modelling may provide a mean to address this problem by comparing simulations with proxy data. We have performed a series of four simulations of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 21,000 years ago) using the climate model HadSM3, to test the sensitivity of climate to various changes in vegetation: a global change (according to a previously discussed simulation of the LGM with HadSM3 coupled to the dynamical vegetation model TRIFFID); a change only north of 35°N; a change only south of 35°N; and a variation in stomatal opening induced by the reduction in atmospheric CO₂ concentration. We focus mainly on the response of temperature, precipitation, and atmosphere dynamics. The response of continental temperature and precipitation mainly results from regional interactions with vegetation. In Eurasia, particularly Siberia and Tibet, the response of the biosphere substantially enhances the glacial cooling through a positive feedback loop between vegetation, temperature, and snow-cover. In central Africa, the decrease in tree fraction reduces the amount of precipitation. Stomatal opening is not seen to play a quantifiable role. The atmosphere dynamics, and more specifically the Asian summer monsoon system, are significantly altered by remote changes in vegetation: the cooling in Siberia and Tibet act in concert to shift the summer subtropical front southwards, weaken the easterly tropical jet and the momentum transport associated with it. By virtue of momentum conservation, these changes in the mid-troposphere circulation are associated with a slowing of the Asian summer monsoon surface flow. The pattern of moisture convergence is slightly altered, with moist convection weakening in the western tropical Pacific and strengthening north of Australia.     

Tropical paleoclimates at the Last Glacial Maximum: comparison of Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP) simulations and paleodata

 Seventeen simulations of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) climate have been performed using atmospheric general circulation models (AGCM) in the framework of the Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP). These simulations use the boundary conditions for CO₂, insolation and ice-sheets; surface temperatures (SSTs) are either (a) prescribed using CLIMAP data set (eight models) or (b) computed by coupling the AGCM with a slab ocean (nine models). The present-day (PD) tropical climate is correctly depicted by all the models, except the coarser resolution models, and the simulated geographical distribution of annual mean temperature is in good agreement with climatology. Tropical cooling at the LGM is less than at middle and high latitudes, but greatly exceeds the PD temperature variability. The LGM simulations with prescribed SSTs underestimate the observed temperature changes except over equatorial Africa where the models produce a temperature decrease consistent with the data. Our results confirm previous analyses showing that CLIMAP (1981) SSTs only produce a weak terrestrial cooling. When SSTs are computed, the models depict a cooling over the Pacific and Indian oceans in contrast with CLIMAP and most models produce cooler temperatures over land. Moreover four of the nine simulations, produce a cooling in good agreement with terrestrial data. Two of these model results over ocean are consistent with new SST reconstructions whereas two models simulate a homogeneous cooling. Finally, the LGM aridity inferred for most of the tropics from the data, is globally reproduced by the models with a strong underestimation for models using computed SSTs. Received: 9 September 1998 / Accepted: 18 March 1999     

Climatic changes in Eurasia and Africa at the last glacial maximum and mid-Holocene: reconstruction from pollen data using inverse vegetation modelling

In order to improve the reliability of climate reconstruction, especially the climatologies outside the modern observed climate space, an improved inverse vegetation model using a recent version of BIOME4 has been designed to quantitatively reconstruct past climates, based on pollen biome scores from the BIOME6000 project. The method has been validated with surface pollen spectra from Eurasia and Africa, and applied to palaeoclimate reconstruction. At 6 cal ka BP (calendar years), the climate was generally wetter than today in southern Europe and northern Africa, especially in the summer. Winter temperatures were higher (1–5°C) than present in southern Scandinavia, northeastern Europe, and southern Africa, but cooler in southern Eurasia and in tropical Africa, especially in Mediterranean regions. Summer temperatures were generally higher than today in most of Eurasia and Africa, with a significant warming from ∼3 to 5°C over northwestern and southern Europe, southern Africa, and eastern Africa. In contrast, summers were 1–3°C cooler than present in the Mediterranean lowlands and in a band from the eastern Black Sea to Siberia. At 21 cal ka BP, a marked hydrological change can be seen in the tropical zone, where annual precipitation was ∼200–1,000 mm/year lower than today in equatorial East Africa compared to the present. A robust inverse relationship is shown between precipitation change and elevation in Africa. This relationship indicates that precipitation likely had an important role in controlling equilibrium-line altitudes (ELA) changes in the tropics during the LGM period. In Eurasia, hydrological decreases follow a longitudinal gradient from Europe to Siberia. Winter temperatures were ∼10–17°C lower than today in Eurasia with a more significant decrease in northern regions. In Africa, winter temperature was ∼10–15°C lower than present in the south, while it was only reduced by ∼0–3°C in the tropical zone. Comparison of palaeoclimate reconstructions using LGM and modern CO₂ concentrations reveals that the effect of CO₂ on pollen-based LGM reconstructions differs by vegetation type. Reconstructions for pollen sites in steppic vegetation in Europe show warmer winter temperatures under LGM CO₂ concentrations than under modern concentrations, and reconstructions for sites in xerophytic woods/scrub in tropical high altitude regions of Africa are wetter for LGM CO₂ concentrations than for modern concentrations, because our reconstructions account for decreased plant water use efficiency.     

Last Glacial Maximum climate of the former Soviet Union and Mongolia reconstructed from pollen and plant macrofossil data

 An improved concept of the best analogues method was used to reconstruct the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) climate from a set of botanical records from the former Soviet Union and Mongolia. Terrestrial pollen and macrofossil taxa were grouped into broad classes – plant functional types (PFTs), defined by the ecological and climatic parameters used in the BIOME1 model. PFT scores were then calibrated in terms of modern climate using 1245 surface pollen spectra from Eurasia and North America. In contrast to individual taxa, which exhibit great variability and may not be present in the palaeoassemblages, even in suitable climates, PFTs are more characteristic of the vegetation types. The modified method thus allows climate reconstruction at time intervals with partial direct analogues of modern vegetation (e.g. the LGM). At 18 kBP, mean temperatures were 20–29 °C colder than today in winter and 5–11 °C colder in summer in European Russia and Ukraine. Sites from western Georgia show negative, but moderate temperature anomalies compared to today: 8–11 °C in January and 5–7 °C in July. LGM winters were 7–15 °C colder and summers were 1–7 °C colder in Siberia and Mongolia. Annual precipitation sums were 50–750 mm lower than today across northern Eurasia, suggesting a weakening of the Atlantic and Pacific influences. Reconstructed drought index shows much drier LGM conditions in northern and mid-latitude Russia, but similar to or slightly wetter than today around the Black Sea and in Mongolia, suggesting compensation of precipitation losses by lower-than-present evaporation. Received: 11 May 1998 / Accepted: 25 September 1998     

AN AGCM +SSiB MODEL SIMULATION ON CHANGES IN PALAEOMONSOON CLIMATE AT 21 KA BP IN CHINA*

The numerical simulation experiment of climate at Last Glacial Maximum (LGM.21 ka BP) in China is made by using an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) coupled with land surface processes (AGCM+SSiB) and earth orbital parameters and boundary forcing conditions at21 ka.The modeled climate features are compared with reconstructed conditions at 21 ka from paleo-lake data and pollen data.The results show that the simulated climate conditions at 21 ka in China are fairly comparable with paleo-climatological data.The climate features at 21 ka in China from the experiment are characterized by a drier in the east and a wetter in the west and in the Tibetan Plateau as well.According to the analysis of distribution of pressure and precipitation,as well as the intensity of atmospheric circulation at 21 ka,monsoon circulation in eastern Asia was significantly weak comparing with the present.In the Tibetan Plateau,the intensity of summer monsoon circulation was strengthened,and winter monsoon was a little stronger than the present.The simulation with given forcing boundary conditions,especially the different vegetation coverage,can reproduce the climate condition at the LGM in China,and therefore provides dynamical mechanisms on the climate changes at 21 ka.     

AN AGCM SSiB MODEL SIMULATION ON CHANGES IN PALAEOMONSOON CLIMATE AT 21 KA BP IN CHINA

The numerical simulation experiment of climate at Last Glacial Maximum (LGM.21 ka BP)in China is made by using an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) coupled with landsurface processes (AGCM SSiB) and earth orbital parameters and boundary forcing conditions at21 ka.The modeled climate features are compared with reconstructed conditions at 21 ka frompaleo-lake data and pollen data.The results show that the simulated climate conditions at 21 ka inChina are fairly comparable with paleo-climatological data.The climate features at 21 ka in Chinafrom the experiment are characterized by a drier in the east and a wetter in the west and in theTibetan Plateau as well.According to the analysis of distribution of pressure and precipitation,aswell as the intensity of atmospheric circulation at 21 ka,monsoon circulation in eastern Asia wassignificantly weak comparing with the present.In the Tibetan Plateau,the intensity of summermonsoon circulation was strengthened,and winter monsoon was a little stronger than the present.The simulation with given forcing boundary conditions,especially the different vegetationcoverage,can reproduce the climate condition at the LGM in China,and therefore providesdynamical mechanisms on the climate changes at 21 ka.     

The atmospheric winter circulation during the Younger Dryas stadial in the Atlantic/European sector

The Younger Dryas (YD) stadial signified an interruption of the warming during the transition from the last glacial to the present interglacial. The mechanism responsible for this cooling is still uncertain, so valuable information concerning climate variability can be obtained by numerical simulation of the YD climate. We performed four experiments on the Younger Dryas climate with the Hamburg atmospheric general circulation model. Here we use the results of these experiments, which differed in prescribed boundary conditions, to characterize the atmospheric winter circulation during the YD stadial in the North Atlantic/European sector. The 10 year means of the following variables are presented: sea level pressure, 500 hPa geopotential heights and 200 hPa winds. In addition, we used daily values to calculate an index to assess the occurrence of blocking and strong zonal flow and to compute storm tracks. Our results show that the YD cooling in Europe was present with a strong and stable westerly circulation without blocking. This is in conflict with an earlier study suggesting frequent easterly winds over NW-Europe. In our experiments the sea-ice cover in the North Atlantic Ocean was the crucial factor forcing this specific YD circulation. Moreover, the jet stream over the North Atlantic was strengthened considerably, causing an enhanced cyclonic activity over the Eurasian continent. The YD winter circulation was different from the circulation found in most simulation studies on the Last Glacial Maximum, since no glacial anticyclones were present and no split of the jet stream occurred. Received: 1 November 1995 / Accepted: 29 May 1996     

春季欧亚-北太平洋上空大气质量迁移规律及其对中国同期气候异常的可能影响

利用1979～2013年NCEP/NCAR月平均再分析资料及NOAA研究中心的CMAP（CPC Merged Analysis of Precipitation）月平均降水资料,通过定义欧亚—北太平洋间大气质量迁移指数I_MAMEP,分析了春季欧亚—北太平洋上空大气质量迁移（MAMEP,Migration of Atmospheric Mass over Regions between Eurasia and North Pacific）的年际变化规律及其与同期中国气候异常的联系。结果表明:在北半球中高纬度存在一个纬向分布的欧亚—北太平洋遥相关型,且其可能对中国同期气候异常的形成具有重要影响。春季MAMEP指数具有显著的长期趋势,同时还具有2～4年及5～7年的振荡周期及明显的年代际变化特征。垂直环流和波动运动对欧亚—北太平洋间大气质量迁移具有重要作用。大气质量在欧亚西部低层异常辐合,高层异常辐散,在中、西太平洋地区低层异常辐散,高层异常辐合,在纬向上构成了顺时针的垂直环流圈,将西北太平洋地区的大气质量变动与欧亚大陆上空的变动联系了起来。另外,来自西欧大陆的波扰能量可传播至北太平洋,有利于这些区域上空位势高度异常扰动的维持。I_MAMEP与春季同期降水及地表气温异常关系密切。I_MAMEP为正时,东亚以北地区、鄂霍次克海西岸以及西欧沿岸降水显著减少,欧亚西部及我国华北地区降水显著增加。850 hPa上西伯利亚受反气旋式环流控制,太平洋上空受气旋式环流控制,引起欧亚大陆北部地表显著增温,西伯利亚以东、我国东北、华北—江淮地区及韩国、日本南部地表显著降温。西欧—我国西北部分地区大面积显著降温现象与这两个地区受异常反气旋东侧的偏北气流影响有关。这些结果有利于人们更深刻认识区域春季气候异常形成机理。     

Ice-free glacial northern Asia due to dust deposition on snow

During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 21 kyr BP), no large ice sheets were present in northern Asia, while northern Europe and North America (except Alaska) were heavily glaciated. We use a general circulation model with high regional resolution and a new parameterization of snow albedo to show that the ice-free conditions in northern Asia during the LGM are favoured by strong glacial dust deposition on the seasonal snow cover. Our climate model simulations indicate that mineral dust deposition on the snow surface leads to low snow albedo during the melt season. This, in turn, caused enhanced snow melt and therefore favoured snow-free peak summer conditions over almost the entire Asian continent during the LGM, whereas perennial snow cover is simulated over a large part of eastern Siberia when glacial dust deposition is not taken into account.     

Paleoclimate modeling in China: A review

This paper provides a review of paleoclimate modeling activities in China. Rather than attempt to cover all topics, we have chosen a few climatic intervals and events judged to be particularly informative to the international community. In historical climate simulations, changes in solar radiation and volcanic activity explain most parts of reconstructions over the last millennium prior to the industrial era, while atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations play the most important role in the20 th century warming over China. There is a considerable model–data mismatch in the annual and boreal winter temperature change over China during the mid-Holocene [6000 years before present(ka BP)], while coupled models with an interactive ocean generally perform better than atmospheric models. For the Last Glacial Maximum(21 ka BP), climate models successfully reproduce the surface cooling trend over China but fail to reproduce its magnitude, with a better performance for coupled models. At that time, reconstructed vegetation and western Pacific sea surface temperatures could have significantly affected the East Asian climate, and environmental conditions on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau were most likely very different to the present day. During the late Marine Isotope Stage 3(30–40 ka BP), orbital forcing and Northern Hemisphere glaciation, as well as vegetation change in China, were likely responsible for East Asian climate change. On the tectonic scale,the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau uplift, the Tethys Sea retreat, and the South China Sea expansion played important roles in the formation of the East Asian monsoon-dominant environment pattern during the late Cenozoic.     

Five hundred years of gridded high-resolution precipitation reconstructions over Europe and the connection to large-scale circulation

We present seasonal precipitation reconstructions for European land areas (30°W to 40°E/30–71°N; given on a 0.5°×0.5° resolved grid) covering the period 1500–1900 together with gridded reanalysis from 1901 to 2000 (Mitchell and Jones 2005). Principal component regression techniques were applied to develop this dataset. A large variety of long instrumental precipitation series, precipitation indices based on documentary evidence and natural proxies (tree-ring chronologies, ice cores, corals and a speleothem) that are sensitive to precipitation signals were used as predictors. Transfer functions were derived over the 1901–1983 calibration period and applied to 1500–1900 in order to reconstruct the large-scale precipitation fields over Europe. The performance (quality estimation based on unresolved variance within the calibration period) of the reconstructions varies over centuries, seasons and space. Highest reconstructive skill was found for winter over central Europe and the Iberian Peninsula. Precipitation variability over the last half millennium reveals both large interannual and decadal fluctuations. Applying running correlations, we found major non-stationarities in the relation between large-scale circulation and regional precipitation. For several periods during the last 500 years, we identified key atmospheric modes for southern Spain/northern Morocco and central Europe as representations of two precipitation regimes. Using scaled composite analysis, we show that precipitation extremes over central Europe and southern Spain are linked to distinct pressure patterns. Due to its high spatial and temporal resolution, this dataset allows detailed studies of regional precipitation variability for all seasons, impact studies on different time and space scales, comparisons with high-resolution climate models as well as analysis of connections with regional temperature reconstructions. Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available for this article at and is accessible for authorized users.     

Mid-Holocene climate in Europe: what can we infer from PMIP model-data comparisons?

 Within the framework of the PMIP (Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project), we have compared mid-Holocene climate simulations from 16 atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) with new pollen-based reconstructions of the European bioclimatic variables for winter and growing season temperatures as well as annual water budget changes. In winter, some models are able to simulate the reconstructed northeastern warming, due to an increased heat transport from the ocean, associated with a larger north-south pressure gradient over the northern Atlantic. Whereas most models are only able to simulate a strong summer warming, data indicate a shorter and/ or colder growing season in southern Europe and a longer and/or warmer growing season in northwestern Europe. The reconstructed change in annual water budget indicates drier conditions in northwestern Europe and wetter conditions in southern Europe. Some models simulate such moisture changes, due to more summer evaporation over Scandinavia during summer, and more autumn-winter-spring precipitation over southern Europe. To address the PMIP approximation of no change in ocean and land boundary conditions, we have performed short sensitivity experiments to surface boundary conditions (sea-surface-temperatures, vegetation) using one single model. The model-data disagreements over Europe are probably due to the local influence of the surrounding oceans which are not taken into account in the first PMIP simulations. We therefore stress the need for more mid-Holocene SST reconstructions and further analysis of pollen data in the Mediterranean region. Received: 23 February 1998 /Accepted: 19 September 1998     

Climate Variability-Observations, Reconstructions, and Model Simulations for the Atlantic-European and Alpine Region from 1500-2100 AD

A detailed analysis is undertaken of the Atlantic-European climate using data from 500-year-long proxy-based climate reconstructions, a long climate simulation with perpetual 1990 forcing, as well as two global and one regional climate change scenarios. The observed and simulated interannual variability and teleconnectivity are compared and interpreted in order to improve the understanding of natural climate variability on interannual to decadal time scales for the late Holocene. The focus is set on the Atlantic-European and Alpine regions during the winter and summer seasons, using temperature, precipitation, and 500 hPa geopotential height fields. The climate reconstruction shows pronounced interdecadal variations that appear to “lock” the atmospheric circulation in quasi-steady long-term patterns over multi-decadal periods controlling at least part of the temperature and precipitation variability. Different circulation patterns are persistent over several decades for the period 1500 to 1900. The 500-year-long simulation with perpetual 1990 forcing shows some substantial differences, with a more unsteady teleconnectivity behaviour. Two global scenario simulations indicate a transition towards more stable teleconnectivity for the next 100 years. Time series of reconstructed and simulated temperature and precipitation over the Alpine region show comparatively small changes in interannual variability within the time frame considered, with the exception of the summer season, where a substantial increase in interannual variability is simulated by regional climate models.     

The application of a present-day climatic model to the late quaternary in southern Africa

A present-day climatic model is presented in which extended wet spells of near-decadal duration and dry spells of similar length are explained on the basis of surface and upper tropospheric circulation variations. Wet spells are shown to be the result of increased tropical atmospheric disturbances and tropical-temperate interaction, and to be linked to variations in the Walker Circulation. Conversely, dry spells are shown to result from diminished tropical activity over southern Africa, equatorward movement of westerly storm tracks and temperate perturbations in the westerlies.The present-day analogue is compared to preliminary spatial reconstructions of the climate of southern Africa over the last twenty-five millennia and is shown to have wide applicability in the explanation of the late-Quaternary palaeoclimates of the subcontinent. In particular, it is argued that the Last Glacial Maximum was associated with northward-displaced circulation conditions similar to those of present-day dry spells over the summer rainfall region, whereas the extensive moist conditions that prevailed for several thousand years after 9000 BP were analogous to present-day wet spell conditions with little apparent displacement of major circulation features.     

Climate model benchmarking with glacial and mid-Holocene climates

Past climates provide a test of models’ ability to predict climate change. We present a comprehensive evaluation of state-of-the-art models against Last Glacial Maximum and mid-Holocene climates, using reconstructions of land and ocean climates and simulations from the Palaeoclimate Modelling and Coupled Modelling Intercomparison Projects. Newer models do not perform better than earlier versions despite higher resolution and complexity. Differences in climate sensitivity only weakly account for differences in model performance. In the glacial, models consistently underestimate land cooling (especially in winter) and overestimate ocean surface cooling (especially in the tropics). In the mid-Holocene, models generally underestimate the precipitation increase in the northern monsoon regions, and overestimate summer warming in central Eurasia. Models generally capture large-scale gradients of climate change but have more limited ability to reproduce spatial patterns. Despite these common biases, some models perform better than others.     

Radiative forcing and response of a GCM to ice age boundary conditions: cloud feedback and climate sensitivity

 A general circulation model is used to examine the effects of reduced atmospheric CO₂, insolation changes and an updated reconstruction of the continental ice sheets at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). A set of experiments is performed to estimate the radiative forcing from each of the boundary conditions. These calculations are used to estimate a total radiative forcing for the climate of the LGM. The response of the general circulation model to the forcing from each of the changed boundary conditions is then investigated. About two-thirds of the simulated glacial cooling is due to the presence of the continental ice sheets. The effect of the cloud feedback is substantially modified where there are large changes to surface albedo. Finally, the climate sensitivity is estimated based on the global mean LGM radiative forcing and temperature response, and is compared to the climate sensitivity calculated from equilibrium experiments with atmospheric CO₂ doubled from present day concentration. The calculations here using the model and palaeodata support a climate sensitivity of about 1 Wm^-2 K^-1 which is within the conventional range. Received: 8 February 1997 / Accepted: 4 June 1997