Local Orbital Forcing of Antarctic Climate Change During the Last Interglacial

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 280; no. 5364; pp. 728 - 730
• Main Authors: Kim, Seong-Joong, Crowley, Thomas J., Stössel, Achim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Society for the Advancement of Science 01.05.1998; American Association for the Advancement of Science; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Climate; Climate change; Climate models; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Glacial climates; Ice ages; Insolation; Marine; Marine and continental quaternary; Musical intervals; Ocean currents; Oceans; Paleoclimatology; Sea ice; Seas; Summer; Surface temperature; Surficial geology; Antarctica; Antarctic region; AN, North Atlantic; PS, Antarctic Ocean; carbon dioxide; stable isotopes; models; O-18; Quaternary; energy balance; ice; paleoclimate; interglacial periods; surface water; drill cores; upper Pleistocene; climate modification; Antarctic Ocean; temperature; polar regions; Cenozoic; Phanerozoic; precession; seasonal variations; ocean circulation; Pleistocene
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.280.5364.728

During the last interglacial, Antarctic climate changed before that of the Northern Hemisphere. Large local changes in precession forcing could have produced this pattern if there were a rectified response in sea ice cover. Results from a coupled sea ice-ocean general circulation model supported this hypothesis when it was tested for three intervals around the last interglacial. Such a mechanism may play an important role in contributing to phase offsets between Northern and Southern Hemisphere climate change for other time intervals.