Past perspectives on the present era of abrupt Arctic climate change

Abrupt climate change is a striking feature of many climate records, particularly the warming events in Greenland ice cores. These abrupt and high-amplitude events were tightly coupled to rapid sea-ice retreat in the North Atlantic and Nordic Seas, and observational evidence shows they had global re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature Climate Change
Main Authors: Jansen, Eystein, Christensen, Jens Hesselbjerg, Dokken, Trond, Nisancioglu, Kerim H., Vinther, Bo M., Capron, Emilie, Guo, Chuncheng, Jensen, Mari F., Langen, Peter L., Pedersen, Rasmus A., Yang, Shuting, Bentsen, Mats, Kjær, Helle A., Sadatzki, Henrik, Sessford, Evangeline, Stendel, Martin
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2020
Subjects:
Arctic
Greenland
Climate change
Greenland ice cores
Nordic Seas
North Atlantic
Sea ice
Online Access:https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/past-perspectives-on-the-present-era-of-abrupt-arctic-climate-change(88c12f5c-7893-4221-861a-235bc230adc8).html
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0860-7
http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85088781391&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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Summary:Abrupt climate change is a striking feature of many climate records, particularly the warming events in Greenland ice cores. These abrupt and high-amplitude events were tightly coupled to rapid sea-ice retreat in the North Atlantic and Nordic Seas, and observational evidence shows they had global repercussions. In the present-day Arctic, sea-ice loss is also key to ongoing warming. This Perspective uses observations and climate models to place contemporary Arctic change into the context of past abrupt Greenland warmings. We find that warming rates similar to or higher than modern trends have only occurred during past abrupt glacial episodes. We argue that the Arctic is currently experiencing an abrupt climate change event, and that climate models underestimate this ongoing warming.

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