CliMoTran · Comprehensive Climate Modeling of the Mid-Pleistocene Transition
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-10-01 → 2023-09-30
- EU contribution
- €191,149
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Comprehensive Climate Modeling of the Mid-Pleistocene Transition
Anthropogenic climate forcing has initiated an unprecedentedly rapid and extensive change of the Earth system and climate. Therefore, it is crucial to gain a better understanding of Earth’s climate system, its changes, and internal processes. The geological past provides a wealth of natural experiments that allow to decipher the triggers and feedback mechanisms that affect climate variability on various timescales. One of the most intriguing climate transitions occurred about one million years ago when the periodicity of ice ages slowed down from 41,000 to 100,000-year cycles, without any discernible changes in the orbital parameters. This shift, known as the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, was accompanied by an increase in the amplitude of glacial-interglacial climate variability, substantially larger continental ice-sheets during peak glacial conditions, and a shift from symmetric to strongly asymmetric cycles. The overarching objective of the CliMoTran project is to unravel the driving processes behind this unique transition in Earth’s climate system through comprehensive climate modeling. The project aims to investigate the impacts of changes in ocean circulation and internal ice sheet dynamics on triggering this enigmatic climate transition. In conclusion, the findings of CliMoTran enhance our understanding of the climate system as a whole and help improve predictions of future climate under the evolving boundary conditions caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The recent geological past is characterized by the cyclic growth and decay of large continental ice-sheets in the northern hemisphere driven by changes in incoming solar radiation associated with Earth’s orbital configuration. These glacial-interglacial cycles initially responded to the 41,000 year pacing of Earth’s axial tilt, but about 1 million years ago this periodicity slowed down to ~100,000 year cycles without any discernible change in orbital parameters, thus indicating fundamental shifts in internal feedback mechanisms. Yet, converging evidence for the origin of this remarkable change in glacial-interglacial pacing, known as the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, remains elusive. The CliMoTran project aims towards a comprehensive understanding of this unique climate transition through the employment of the Bern3D Earth System model. In order to enable fully dynamical simulations of glacial-interglacial cycles a readily available vertical integrated ice-sheet model will be coupled to the exceptionally computational efficient Bern3D model. Newly compiled paleoclimatic reconstructions will form important constraints on the past climate that can be directly compared to the wide palette of tracers implemented in the Bern3D model. This, together with the individually explored forcing parameters will shed light on the complex processes that were responsible for the remarkable slow-down of ice age cycles. As such, the project will advance the understanding of the relevant, often interwoven, driving processes of climate change, a much-needed undertaking for improving predictions of future climate in the face of accelerated anthropogenic carbon emissions. Conducted in a leading multidisciplinary research environment CliMoTran will thus not only expand the researcher’s previous scientific background in environmental physics and Earth sciences but will also enhance the development of his career as an independent researcher in a unique way.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITAET BERN · BernCoordinatorSwitzerland
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union