Modeling Past Atmospheric CO2: Results of a Challenge

• Published in: Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union
• Main Authors: Wolf, Eric, Kull, Christoph, Chappellaz, Jérôme, Fischer, Hubertus, Miller, Heinz, Stocker, Thomas F., J. Watson, Andrew, Flower, Benjamin, Joos, Fortunat, Köhler, Peter, Matsumoto, Katsumi, Monnin, Eric, Mudelsee, Manfred, Paillard, Didier, Shackelton, Nick
• Other Authors: British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Past Global Changes International Project Office, Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Abteilung Klinische Sozialmedizin, Berufs- und Umweltdermatologie, Universität Heidelberg Heidelberg, Climate and Environmental Physics Bern (CEP), Physikalisches Institut Bern, Universität Bern Bern -Universität Bern Bern, School of Environmental Sciences Norwich, University of East Anglia Norwich (UEA), University of South Florida Tampa (USF), University of Minnesota System, Universität Leipzig Leipzig, Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ), University of Cambridge UK (CAM)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2005
• Subjects: Carbon cycling; Paleoclimatology; Paleoceanography; Cryosphere; Ice cores; [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; Antarctic; Antarc*; ice core
• Online Access: https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00375195; https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00375195/document; https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00375195/file/2005EO380003.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/2005EO380003

International audience The models and concepts used to predict future climate are based on physical laws and information obtained from observations of the past. New paleoclimate records are crucial for a test of our current understanding. The Vostok ice core record [Petit et al., 1999] showed that over the past 420 kyr (1 kyr = 1000 years), Antarctic climate and concentrations of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) were tightly coupled. In particular, CO2 seemed to be confined between bounds of about 180 ppmv (parts per million by volume) in glacial periods and 280 ppmv in interglacials; both gases rose and fell with climate as the Earth passed through four glacial/interglacial cycles.