Interhemispheric coupling and warm Antarctic interglacials

P. B. Holden, N. R. Edwards, E. W. Wolff, N. J. Lang, J. S. Singarayer, P. J. Valdes, T. F. Stocker
2009 Climate of the Past Discussions  
Ice core evidence indicates that even though atmospheric CO 2 concentrations did not exceed ∼300 ppm at any point during the last 800 000 years, East Antarctica was at least ∼3-4 • C warmer than pre-industrial (CO 2 ∼280 ppm) in each of the last four interglacials. During the previous three interglacials, this anomalous warming was short 5 lived (∼3 000 years) and apparently occurred before the completion of Northern Hemisphere deglaciation. Hereafter, we refer to these periods as "Warmer than
more » ... resent Transients" (WPTs). We here present transient 800 kyr simulations using the intermediate complexity model GENIE-1 which suggest that WPTs could be explained as a consequence of the meltwater-forced slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturn-10
doi:10.5194/cpd-5-2555-2009 fatcat:eqt5vdan45c2pf7wspttiihi6a