Millennial and sub-millennial scale climatic variations recorded in polar ice cores over the last glacial period ...

• Main Authors: Chappellaz, J., Leuenberger, Markus, Oerter, H., Dahl-Jensen, D., Lemieux-Dudon, B., Capron, E., Schilt, Adrian, Loulergue, L., Masson-Delmotte, V., Stenni, B., Buiron, D., Jouzel, J., Johnsen, S. J., Landais, A., Meyer, H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2010
• Subjects: Antarctic; Greenland; Antarc*; EPICA; Greenland ice cores
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7892/boris.4618; http://boris.unibe.ch/4618/

Since its discovery in Greenland ice cores, the millennial scale climatic variability of the last glacial period has been increasingly documented at all latitudes with studies focusing mainly on Marine Isotopic Stage 3 (MIS 3; 28–60 thousand of years before present, hereafter ka) and characterized by short Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events. Recent and new results obtained on the EPICA and NorthGRIP ice cores now precisely describe the rapid variations of Antarctic and Greenland temperature during MIS 5 (73.5–123 ka), a time period corresponding to relatively high sea level. The results display a succession of abrupt events associated with long Greenland InterStadial phases (GIS) enabling us to highlight a sub-millennial scale climatic variability depicted by (i) short-lived and abrupt warming events preceding some GIS (precursor-type events) and (ii) abrupt warming events at the end of some GIS (rebound-type events). The occurrence of these sub-millennial scale events is suggested to be driven by the insolation ...