Sonification of the atmospheric carbon record over the Holocene epoch ...

• Main Author: Twedt, Judy
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2023
• Subjects: FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences; Holocene; Carbon dioxide; Anthropocene; science communication; Sonification; Global warming; Climate change; Ice cores; Law Dome; EPICA
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.hqbzkh1mp; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.hqbzkh1mp

This piece is part of a collection of sound compositions called Timescales, which sonifies datasets spanning different time scales of the atmospheric carbon record. The Holocene is a geologic epoch which began approximately 11,700 years ago as the last glaciation ended. At the onset of the Holocene, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were approximately 265 ppm, and they remained below 280 ppm until the 18th century and the dawn of the industrial revolution. The Holocene composition creates an experience of listening to the stable climate of the Holocene epoch, and hearing the end of the Holocene and the beginning of the Anthropocene. ... : Holocene uses a repeated melody that is three measures long, each measure is a three-tone sequence with scale degrees: [3,1,3], [3,3,5], [3,3,8]. Each measure corresponds to one data point, and the pitch for all notes in the measure are determined by the mapped carbon midi value, so that repeated CO2 midi values create a repeating melody. When the CO2 value shifts up or down, the whole measure shifts by the same degree, preserving the interval between notes. This way, the melodic structure stays the same, but is translated up or down the scale according to the carbon record. The CO2 value in ppm is mapped to a pentatonic (five-note) equal-temperament scale spanning six octaves, from 392 Hz to 5587.65 Hz (assigned as MIDI values). This pitch value determines the pitch of the first note in each measure. The other two pitches in the measure are determined in relation to the first pitch, by the aforementioned scale degrees. The mapping of historical time to musical time is as follows; in the first 70 beats, each ...