Timing of Atmospheric CO 2 and Antarctic Temperature Changes Across Termination III

The analysis of air bubbles from ice cores has yielded a precise record of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, but the timing of changes in these gases with respect to temperature is not accurately known because of uncertainty in the gas age–ice age difference. We have measured the isotopic c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Caillon, Nicolas, Severinghaus, Jeffrey P., Jouzel, Jean, Barnola, Jean-Marc, Kang, Jiancheng, Lipenkov, Volodya Y.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2003
Subjects:
Antarctic
Antarc*
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1078758
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1078758
Description
Summary:The analysis of air bubbles from ice cores has yielded a precise record of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, but the timing of changes in these gases with respect to temperature is not accurately known because of uncertainty in the gas age–ice age difference. We have measured the isotopic composition of argon in air bubbles in the Vostok core during Termination III (∼240,000 years before the present). This record most likely reflects the temperature and accumulation change, although the mechanism remains unclear. The sequence of events during Termination III suggests that the CO 2 increase lagged Antarctic deglacial warming by 800 ± 200 years and preceded the Northern Hemisphere deglaciation.

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