Simulation of climate phase lags in response to precession and obliquity forcing and the role of vegetation

Long (130,000 years) transient simulations with a coupled model of intermediate complexity (CLIMBER-2) have been performed. The main objective of this study is to examine leads and lags in the response to the climate system to separate obliquity and precession-induced insolation changes. Focus is on the role of internal feedbacks in the coupled atmosphere/ocean/sea-ice/vegetation system. No interactive ice sheets were used. The results show that leads and lags occur in response to the African/Asian monsoon, temperatures at high latitudes and the Atlantic thermohaline circulation. For the monsoon, leads and lags of the monthly precipitation with respect to the precession parameter were found, which are strongly modified by vegetation. In contrast, no lag was observed for the annual precipitation. At high latitudes during late winter/early spring a vegetation-induced lag with respect to the precession parameter was found in surface air temperatures. Again, no annual lag was detected. The lag in the monthly surface air temperatures induces a lag in the annual overturning in the Atlantic Ocean by changing the strength of the deep convection. The lag is several thousand years. The obliquity-related forcing does not give rise to lags in the climate system. We conclude that lags in monthly climatic variables, which are due to vegetation feedbacks, can result in an annual lag when a climatic process (like deep water formation) acts as a filter for certain months.     

Two Necessary Conditions for the Glacial-Interglacial Cycles in the Quaternary

Milankovitch Theory shows that glacial-interglacial cycles in the Quaternary are related to the variation of solar insolation forcing linked to the earth's astronomical parameters.However,the summer insolation at northern high latitudes,usually considered as the main external forcing for the ice age as Milankovitch pointed out,is marked by the 19- and 23-ka precession periodicities,which is not consistent with the glacial-interglacial cycles.On the other hand,recent studies indicate that the annual mean ...     

EMD analysis of solar insolation

Summary A new time series analysis technique, Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD), which has been successfully applied to nonlinear and nonstationary data, is used to examine paleoclimate cycles in the Pleistocene (1 Ma bp–20 Ka bp). The purpose of this study is to improve knowledge of the climatic significance of solar insolation. The results show that the eccentricity band signal is much larger than previously estimated, having an amplitude of about 1% of solar irradiance which is comparable to the amplitude of the precession and obliquity band signals. This finding implies the need to reconsider the role of solar radiation on the formation and maintenance of quaternary ice sheet cycles.     

A comparison of the Vostok ice deuterium record and series from Southern Ocean core MD 88-770 over the last two glacial-interglacial cycles

Taking advantage of the fact that the Vostok deuterium (δD) record now covers almost two entire climatic cycles, we have applied the orbital tuning approach to derive an age-depth relation for the Vostok ice core, which is consistent with the SPECMAP marine time scale. A second age-depth relation for Vostok was obtained by correlating the ice isotope content with estimates of sea surface temperature from Southern Ocean core MD 88-770. Both methods lead to a close correspondence between Vostok and MD 88-770 time series. However, the coherence between the correlated δD and insolation is much lower than between the orbitally tuned δD and insolation. This reflects the lower accuracy of the correlation method with respect to direct orbital tuning. We compared the ice and marine records, set in a common temporal framework, in the time and frequency domains. Our results indicate that changes in the Antarctic air temperature quite clearly lead variations in global ice volume in the obliquity and precession frequency bands. Moreover, the average phase we estimated between the filtered δD and insolation signals at precessional frequencies indicates that variations in the southern high latitude surface temperature could be induced by changes in insolation taking place during a large period of the summer in northern low latitudes or winter in southern low latitudes. The relatively large lag found between Vostok δD variations and obliquity-driven changes in insolation suggests that variations in the local radiative balance are not the only mechanism responsible for the variability in surface temperature at those frequencies. Finally, in contrast to the cross-spectral analysis method used in previous studies, the method we use here to estimate the phases can reveal errors in cross-correlations with orbitally tuned chronologies. Received: 11 April 1995 / Accepted: 19 July 1995     

On some characteristics of insolation changes in the past and the future

Variations in terrestrial insolation, induced by perturbations of the earth's orbital parameters, are calculated for different geographical latitudes for ±100000 yr and in detail for the modern period between A.D. 1800–2100. The calculations show that short-period insolation variations occur against a background of secular variation, with an amplitude which can be comparable in magnitude to that of the 300-yr secular trend. For comparison we calculate the secular trends of insolation for Milankovich's caloric half-years for the period ±100000 yr with high time resolution. The nature of secular and short-term insolation changes is discussed for different latitudinal circles during future centuries. We conclude that orbitally-induced variations of insolation with periods of 18.6, 11.9, 5.9, 4.0, and 2.7 yr will perturb the radiation regime at the upper atmospheric boundary.     

Individual contribution of insolation and CO2 to the interglacial climates of the past 800,000?years

The individual contributions of insolation and greenhouse gases (GHG) to the interglacial climates of the past 800,000?years are quantified through simulations with a model of intermediate complexity LOVECLIM and using the factor separation technique. The interglacials are compared in terms of their forcings and responses of surface air temperature, vegetation and sea ice. The results show that the relative magnitude of the simulated interglacials is in reasonable agreement with proxy data. GHG plays a dominant role on the variations of the annual mean temperature of both the Globe and the southern high latitudes, whereas, insolation plays a dominant role on the variations of tree fraction, precipitation and of the northern high latitude temperature and sea ice. The Mid-Brunhes Event (MBE) appears to be significant only in GHG and climate variables dominated by it. The results also show that the relative importance of GHG and insolation on the warmth intensity varies from one interglacial to another. For the warmest (MIS-9 and MIS-5) and coolest (MIS-17 and MIS-13) interglacials, GHG and insolation reinforce each other. MIS-11 (MIS-15) is a warm (cool) interglacial due to its high (low) GHG concentration, its insolation contributing to a cooling (warming). MIS-7, although with high GHG concentrations, can not be classified as a warm interglacial due to it large insolation-induced cooling. Related to these two forcings, MIS-19 appears to be the best analogue for MIS-1. In the response to insolation, the annual mean temperatures averaged over the globe and over southern high latitudes are highly linearly correlated with obliquity. However, precession becomes important in the temperature of the northern high latitudes and controls the tree fraction globally. Over the polar oceans, the response during the local winters, although the available energy is small, is larger than during the local summers due to the summer remnant effect. The sensitivity to double CO₂ is the highest for the coolest interglacial.     

Orbital forced frequencies in the 975 000 year pollen record from Tenagi Philippon (Greece)

Frequency analysis was applied to different time series obtained from the 975 ka pollen record of Tenagi Philippon (Macedonia, Greece). These time series are characteristic of different vegetation types related to specific climatic conditions. Time control of the 196 m deep core was based on 11 finite 14C dates in the upper 17 m, magnetostratigraphy and correlation with the marine oxygen isotope stratigraphy. Maximum entropy spectrum analyses and thomson multitaper spectrum analysis were applied using the complete time series. Periods of 95–99, 40–45, 24.0–25.5 and 19–21 ka which can be related to orbital forcing, as well as periods of about 68, 30 ka and of about 15.5, 13.5, 12 and 10.5 ka were detected. The detected periods of about 68, 30 ka and 16, 14, 12, 10.5 ka are likely to be harmonics and combination tones of the periods related to orbital forcing. The period of around 30 ka is possibly a secondary peak of obliquity. To study the stability of the detected periods through time, analysis with a moving window was employed. Signals in the eccentricity band were detected clearly during the last 650 ka. In the precession band, detected periods of about 24 ka show an increase in amplitude during the last 650 ka. The evolution of orbital frequencies during the last 1.0 Ma is in general agreement with the results of other marine and continental time series. Time series related to different climatic settings showed a different response to orbital forcing. Time series of vegetational elements sensitive to changes in net precipitation were forced in the precession and obliquity bands. changes in precession caused changes in the monsoon system, which indirectly had a strong influence on the climatic history of Greece. Time series of vegetational elements which are more indicative of changes in annual temperature are forced in the eccentricity band.     

SHORT-TERM PERIODIC CLIMATIC CHANGE: A COMBINED EFFECT BETWEEN THE SUNSPOT CYCLE AND THE LUNAR NUTATION

We present a simple algorithm to model the surface air temperature trends at the middle-high latitudes of the northern and southern hemispheres for the last century. Unlike previous approaches, based on the variation of the solar irradiance only, the algorithm here presented is the sum of one more external influence: the periodic variation of insolation due to the astronomical nutation of the Earth's axis. The model we present predicts the anticorrelated mean surface air temperature trends, measured at middle-high latitudes of the two hemispheres, during the period of low solar irradiance. According to Milankovitch, a change of the Earth's obliquity means a variation of insolation mainly at the middle-high latitudes; this variation takes opposite sign for northern and southern hemispheres.     

Time-dependent response of a zonally averaged ocean–atmosphere–sea ice model to Milankovitch forcing

An ocean–atmosphere–sea ice model is developed to explore the time-dependent response of climate to Milankovitch forcing for the time interval 5–3 Myr BP. The ocean component is a zonally averaged model of the circulation in five basins (Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, Pacific, and Southern Oceans). The atmospheric component is a one-dimensional (latitudinal) energy balance model, and the sea-ice component is a thermodynamic model. Two numerical experiments are conducted. The first experiment does not include sea ice and the Arctic Ocean; the second experiment does. Results from the two experiments are used to investigate (1) the response of annual mean surface air and ocean temperatures to Milankovitch forcing, and (2) the role of sea ice in this response. In both experiments, the response of air temperature is dominated by obliquity cycles at most latitudes. On the other hand, the response of ocean temperature varies with latitude and depth. Deep water formed between 45°N and 65°N in the Atlantic Ocean mainly responds to precession. In contrast, deep water formed south of 60°S responds to obliquity when sea ice is not included. Sea ice acts as a time-integrator of summer insolation changes such that annual mean sea-ice conditions mainly respond to obliquity. Thus, in the presence of sea ice, air temperature changes over the sea ice are amplified, and temperature changes in deep water of southern origin are suppressed since water below sea ice is kept near the freezing point.     

Orbital forcing and role of the latitudinal insolation/temperature gradient

Orbital forcing of the climate system is clearly shown in the Earths record of glacial–interglacial cycles, but the mechanism underlying this forcing is poorly understood. Traditional Milankovitch theory suggests that these cycles are driven by changes in high latitude summer insolation, yet this forcing is dominated by precession, and cannot account for the importance of obliquity in the Ice Age record. Here, we investigate an alternative forcing based on the latitudinal insolation gradient (LIG), which is dominated by both obliquity (in summer) and precession (in winter). The insolation gradient acts on the climate system through differential solar heating, which creates the Earths latitudinal temperature gradient (LTG) that drives the atmospheric and ocean circulation. A new pollen-based reconstruction of the LTG during the Holocene is used to demonstrate that the LTG may be much more sensitive to changes in the LIG than previously thought. From this, it is shown how LIG forcing of the LTG may help explain the propagation of orbital signatures throughout the climate system, including the Monsoon, Arctic Oscillation and ocean circulation. These relationships are validated over the last (Eemian) Interglacial, which occurred under a different orbital configuration to the Holocene. We conclude that LIG forcing of the LTG explains many criticisms of classic Milankovitch theory, while being poorly represented in climate models.     

A note on orbital control of equator-pole heat fluxes

We note that orbital (Milankovitch) variations, in particular the precession of the equinoxes, can lead to profound variations in the flux of heat from the tropics to higher latitudes. The mechanism involves changing the intensity of the Hadley circulation by varying the maximum displacement from the equator of the zonally averaged surface temperature maximum in summer. The precession of the equinoxes causes this quantity to vary by more than a factor of 2. The intensity of the Hadley circulation has a major influence on the heat fluxes in the winter hemisphere. Summer heat fluxes are generally small. Although the precession cycle is characterized by periods in the neighborhood of 20000 years, the variations are modulated by the eccentricity whose variation is dominated by periods in the neighborhood of 100000 years and 400000 years. We show how the fact that both small and large heat fluxes lead to low snowfall (and, hence, small glacial accumulation) causes the demodulation of the heat flux leading to dominant eccentricity periods in the resulting glaciation.     

Holocene hydrological cycle changes in the Southern Hemisphere documented in East Antarctic deuterium excess records

Four Holocene-long East Antarctic deuterium excess records are used to study past changes of the hydrological cycle in the Southern Hemisphere. We combine simple and complex isotopic models to quantify the relationships between Antarctic deuterium excess fluctuations and the sea surface temperature (SST) integrated over the moisture source areas for Antarctic snow. The common deuterium excess increasing trend during the first half of the Holocene is therefore interpreted in terms of a warming of the average ocean moisture source regions over this time. Available Southern Hemisphere SST records exhibit opposite trends at low latitudes (warming) and at high latitudes (cooling) during the Holocene. The agreement between the Antarctic deuterium excess and low-latitude SST trends supports the idea that the tropics dominate in providing moisture for Antarctic precipitation. The opposite trends in SSTs at low and high latitudes can potentially be explained by the decreasing obliquity during the Holocene inducing opposite trends in the local mean annual insolation between low and high latitudes. It also implies an increased latitudinal insolation gradient that in turn can maintain a stronger atmospheric circulation transporting more tropical moisture to Antarctica. This mechanism is supported by results from a mid-Holocene climate simulation performed using a coupled ocean-atmosphere model. Received: 7 July 1999 / Accepted: 21 July 2000     

Trends, time-varying and nonlinear time series models for NGRIP and VOSTOK paleoclimate data

In order to gain further insights into stochastic behaviour of paleoclimate data, including timescales at and below Milankovitch forcing, three specific questions are discussed using δ ¹⁸O NGRIP and Vostok Deuterium content data. A comparison of ordinary and time-varying coefficients autoregressive (AR) models shows that both data sets are distinguishable from data generated by suitable low-order AR processes in contrast to earlier conclusions. A harmonic regression analysis clearly distinguishing between discrete and continuous spectra detects cycles corresponding to variations of eccentricity, obliquity and precession. Contribution of eccentricity to the total variance in the last 422,766-year Vostok data is close to, while the variance reduction delivered jointly by obliquity and precession is substantially smaller than a previous recent finding. A harmonic regression analysis with time-varying frequencies and amplitudes is also performed. This approach delivers a gain over the constant frequency model at any reasonable significance level. It is demonstrated that variations of frequencies are at least partly due to real variations and not merely to timescale uncertainties. In order to consider nonlinearity in paleoclimate data, threshold autoregressive (TAR) models are applied to time series examined. A bivariate TAR model describing simultaneous NGRIP and Vostok data exhibits three fix points and one limit cycle related to a part of Dansgaard–Oeschger events. The model selected suggests that Greenland has a primary role in the Greenland–Antarctica climate variation relationship.     

Calendar effect on phase study in paleoclimate transient simulation with orbital forcing

Several studies have shown that the use of different calendars in paleoclimate simulations can cause artificial phase shifts on insolation forcing and climatic responses. However, these important calendar corrections are still often neglected. In this paper, the phase shifts at the precession band is quantitatively assessed by converting the model data of the transient GCM climate simulation of Kutzbach et al. (Clim Dyn 30:567?C579, 2008) from the ??fixed-day?? calendar to the ??fixed-angular?? calendar with a new and efficient approach. We find that insolation has a big phase shift in September?COctober?CNovember (SON) when the vernal equinox (VE) is fixed to March 21. At high latitude, the phase bias is up to 60° (about 3650?years). The insolation phase bias in SON in Southern Hemisphere (SH) is especially important because it can influence the timing of the SH summer monsoon response due to the large heat capacity of ocean. The calendar correction has minor effect (±2°) on the phase relationships between forcing and precipitation responses of the six global summer monsoons studied in Kutzbach et al. (2008). After correcting the calendar effect, especial on SH ocean temperature, the new phase wheel results are more similar for both hemispheres. The results suggest that the calendar effect should be corrected before discussing the dynamics between orbital forcing and climatic responses in phase studies of transient simulations.     

Power spectrum analysis of the annual rainfall series for Massachusetts (NE,U.S.A.)

Maximum Entropy Spectral Analysis of the annual rainfall series for 1887–1976 (90 years) for Massachusetts (northeastern USA.) shows T = 17.8 (very near the 18.6 year luni-solar signal) as the most prominent periodicity. However, it explains only 12% variance. Also, the next prominent periodicity is T = 2.72 years, i.e. in the QBO (Quasi-Biennial Oscillation, T = 2–3 years) region. Also, regular periodicities account for only 50% variance, leaving 50% as a random component. Hence, predictions are unreliable. Roughly, excess rainfall during 1990–1994 and droughts during 1992–2002 are indicated; but occasional years of opposite behavior cannot be ruled out.     

以前1万年至未来3千年天文辐射时空分布的长期演变

大气上界太阳辐射又称为日射、完全透明大气的太阳辐射、入射太阳辐射、没有大气时的太阳辐射或天文辐射等等。本文均采用“天文辐射”一词。它较好地揭示了大气上界太阳辐射日变化、年变化与随纬度分布的原因实质(即地球自转角速度、赤纬、日地距离等天文参数的变化及地理纬度的分布)。而且,天文辐射在地质时代的长期演变也主要取决于地球轨道参数(黄赤交角、偏心率及岁差)的周期性变化。这主要是由于太阳系中的其他8个行星以及月亮等施加的引力所造成的。根据以上的分析可以认为,采用天文辐射一词是较为确切的。它从天体力学角度揭示了大气上界太阳辐射时(日变化、年变化、长年变化)空(地理纬度)变化的原因实质,相对于其他学术词汇而言,含有实质性的信息量。     

Is the astronomical forcing a reliable and unique pacemaker for climate? A conceptual model study

There is evidence that ice age cycles are paced by astronomical forcing, suggesting some kind of synchronisation phenomenon. Here, we identify the type of such synchronisation and explore systematically its uniqueness and robustness using a simple paleoclimate model akin to the van der Pol relaxation oscillator and dynamical system theory. As the insolation is quite a complex quasiperiodic signal involving different frequencies, the traditional concepts used to define synchronisation to periodic forcing are no longer applicable. Instead, we explore a different concept of generalised synchronisation in terms of (coexisting) synchronised solutions for the forced system, their basins of attraction and instabilities. We propose a clustering technique to compute the number of synchronised solutions, each of which corresponds to a different paleoclimate history. In this way, we uncover multistable synchronisation (reminiscent of phase- or frequency-locking to individual periodic components of astronomical forcing) at low forcing strength, and monostable or unique synchronisation at stronger forcing. In the multistable regime, different initial conditions may lead to different paleoclimate histories. To study their robustness, we analyse Lyapunov exponents that quantify the rate of convergence towards each synchronised solution (local stability), and basins of attraction that indicate critical levels of external perturbations (global stability). We find that even though synchronised solutions are stable on a long term, there exist short episodes of desynchronisation where nearby climate trajectories diverge temporarily (for about 50 kyr). As the attracting trajectory can sometimes lie close to the boundary of its basin of attraction, a small perturbation could quite easily make climate to jump between different histories, reducing the predictability. Our study brings new insight into paleoclimate dynamics and reveals a possibility for the climate system to wander throughout different climatic histories related to preferential synchronisation regimes on obliquity, precession or combinations of both, all over the history of the Pleistocene.     

Insolation in terms of Earth's orbital parameters

Summary The solar insolation at any point on the Earth can be expressed in terms of the latitude and longitude of that point and the parameters of the Earth's orbit. The derivation of such an equation is given here. One purpose of the equation is to gain theoretical insights into how the insolation varies on the time scales of the Milankovitch cycles. The most easily attained insights are that neither the main pacemaker of the ice agese, nor Milankovitch's precession indexe sin appear as terms in the equation (e is the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit and is the argument of perihelion.) Obliquity does appear. These results are already well-known, but are easily derived when the insolation is formulated as given here. The equation also suggests expressing the Earth's albedo in the same form as the insolation. When this is done a term which looks likee sin can be made to appear, for example, multiplied by an albedo coefficient and lagged in phase. However, the term is small, of the order ofe ². Besides theoretical insights, a second purpose of the equation is to provide a convenient formula for computing insolation when using numerical climate models. Its usefulness to this end is yet to be established.With 3 Figures     

Local indications of climate changes in Turkey: Bursa as a case example

This study aims to put out on what ratio Bursa province, one of the important heavy industry regions of Turkey, has been affected climatic process called “Global Warming” or “Climate Change”. For this intend climatic measurement results from Bursa center, top of Uludağ Mount, Yenişehir and Keles meteorological stations were used. These measurements were taken as minimum temperature at night-time, maximum temperature at day-time, and mean temperature, mean pressure, insolation intensity, insolation duration, mean wind speed, minimum temperature above soil, soil temperatures at depths of 5, 10, and 20 cm rainfall. Overall, our statistical results showed that there was a considerable warming at statistically 1% and 5% levels in summer months, particularly in July Almost all performed measurements confirm this result. According to climatic data for thirty years (1975–2005), in the last twelve years contrary to previous 18 years, mean temperature values were higher than long-term mean value nine times (years) repetitively. Temperatures did not deviated higher than 0.5°C in six of these. At the temperatures below mean, The maximum deviation was −0.4°C.     

Simulation of the evolutionary response of global summer monsoons to orbital forcing over the past 280,000 years

We describe the evolutionary response of northern and southern hemisphere summer monsoons to orbital forcing over the past 280,000 years using a fully coupled general circulation ocean-atmosphere model in which the orbital forcing is accelerated by a factor of 100. We find a strong and positive response of northern (southern) summer monsoon precipitation to northern (southern) summer insolation forcing. On average, July (January) precipitation maxima and JJA (DJF) precipitation maxima have high coherence and are approximately in phase with June (December) insolation maxima, implying an average lag between forcing and response of about 30° of phase at the precession period. The average lag increases to over 40° for 4-month precipitation averages, JJAS (DJFM). The phase varies from region to region. The average JJA (DJF) land temperature maxima also lag the June orbital forcing maxima by about 30° of phase, whereas ocean temperature maxima exhibit a lag of about 60° of phase at the precession period. Using generalized measures of the thermal and hydrologic processes that produce monsoons, we find that the summer monsoon precipitation indices for the six regions all fall within the phase limits of the process indices for the respective hemispheres. Selected observational studies from four of the six monsoon regions report approximate in-phase relations of summer monsoon proxies to summer insolation. However other observational studies report substantial phase lags of monsoon proxies and a strong component of forcing associated with glacial-age boundary conditions or other factors. An important next step will be to include glacial-age boundary condition forcing in long, transient paleoclimate simulations, along with orbital forcing.