Albedo and heat transport in 3-D model simulations of the early Archean climate
At the beginning of the Archean eon (ca. 3.8 billion years ago), the Earth's climate state was significantly different from today due to the lower solar luminosity, smaller continental fraction, higher rotation rate and, presumably, significantly larger greenhouse gas concentrations. All these...
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ftleibnizopen:oai:oai.leibnizopen.de:8JAGyYkBdbrxVwz6DZ1o 2023-08-27T04:11:57+02:00 Albedo and heat transport in 3-D model simulations of the early Archean climate Kienert, H. Feulner, G. Petoukhov, V. 2013 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.34657/780 https://oa.tib.eu/renate/handle/123456789/634 eng eng München : European Geopyhsical Union CC BY 3.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Climate of the Past, Volume 9, Issue 4, Page 1841-1862 air temperature albedo Archean carbon dioxide heat transfer luminescence meridional circulation oceanic general circulation model paleoatmosphere paleoclimate parameterization thermodynamics three-dimensional modeling 550 article Text 2013 ftleibnizopen https://doi.org/10.34657/780 2023-08-06T23:38:33Z At the beginning of the Archean eon (ca. 3.8 billion years ago), the Earth's climate state was significantly different from today due to the lower solar luminosity, smaller continental fraction, higher rotation rate and, presumably, significantly larger greenhouse gas concentrations. All these aspects play a role in solutions to the "faint young Sun paradox" which must explain why the ocean surface was not fully frozen at that time. Here, we present 3-D model simulations of climate states that are consistent with early Archean boundary conditions and have different CO2 concentrations, aiming at an understanding of the fundamental characteristics of the early Archean climate system. In order to do so, we have appropriately modified an intermediate complexity climate model that couples a statistical-dynamical atmosphere model (involving parameterizations of the dynamics) to an ocean general circulation model and a thermodynamic-dynamic sea-ice model. We focus on three states: one of them is ice-free, one has the same mean surface air temperature of 288 K as today's Earth and the third one is the coldest stable state in which there is still an area with liquid surface water (i.e. the critical state at the transition to a "snowball Earth"). We find a reduction in meridional heat transport compared to today, which leads to a steeper latitudinal temperature profile and has atmospheric as well as oceanic contributions. Ocean surface velocities are largely zonal, and the strength of the atmospheric meridional circulation is significantly reduced in all three states. These aspects contribute to the observed relation between global mean temperature and albedo, which we suggest as a parameterization of the ice-albedo feedback for 1-D model simulations of the early Archean and thus the faint young Sun problem. publishedVersion Article in Journal/Newspaper Sea ice LeibnizOpen (The Leibniz Association) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
LeibnizOpen (The Leibniz Association) |
op_collection_id |
ftleibnizopen |
language |
English |
topic |
air temperature albedo Archean carbon dioxide heat transfer luminescence meridional circulation oceanic general circulation model paleoatmosphere paleoclimate parameterization thermodynamics three-dimensional modeling 550 |
spellingShingle |
air temperature albedo Archean carbon dioxide heat transfer luminescence meridional circulation oceanic general circulation model paleoatmosphere paleoclimate parameterization thermodynamics three-dimensional modeling 550 Kienert, H. Feulner, G. Petoukhov, V. Albedo and heat transport in 3-D model simulations of the early Archean climate |
topic_facet |
air temperature albedo Archean carbon dioxide heat transfer luminescence meridional circulation oceanic general circulation model paleoatmosphere paleoclimate parameterization thermodynamics three-dimensional modeling 550 |
description |
At the beginning of the Archean eon (ca. 3.8 billion years ago), the Earth's climate state was significantly different from today due to the lower solar luminosity, smaller continental fraction, higher rotation rate and, presumably, significantly larger greenhouse gas concentrations. All these aspects play a role in solutions to the "faint young Sun paradox" which must explain why the ocean surface was not fully frozen at that time. Here, we present 3-D model simulations of climate states that are consistent with early Archean boundary conditions and have different CO2 concentrations, aiming at an understanding of the fundamental characteristics of the early Archean climate system. In order to do so, we have appropriately modified an intermediate complexity climate model that couples a statistical-dynamical atmosphere model (involving parameterizations of the dynamics) to an ocean general circulation model and a thermodynamic-dynamic sea-ice model. We focus on three states: one of them is ice-free, one has the same mean surface air temperature of 288 K as today's Earth and the third one is the coldest stable state in which there is still an area with liquid surface water (i.e. the critical state at the transition to a "snowball Earth"). We find a reduction in meridional heat transport compared to today, which leads to a steeper latitudinal temperature profile and has atmospheric as well as oceanic contributions. Ocean surface velocities are largely zonal, and the strength of the atmospheric meridional circulation is significantly reduced in all three states. These aspects contribute to the observed relation between global mean temperature and albedo, which we suggest as a parameterization of the ice-albedo feedback for 1-D model simulations of the early Archean and thus the faint young Sun problem. publishedVersion |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kienert, H. Feulner, G. Petoukhov, V. |
author_facet |
Kienert, H. Feulner, G. Petoukhov, V. |
author_sort |
Kienert, H. |
title |
Albedo and heat transport in 3-D model simulations of the early Archean climate |
title_short |
Albedo and heat transport in 3-D model simulations of the early Archean climate |
title_full |
Albedo and heat transport in 3-D model simulations of the early Archean climate |
title_fullStr |
Albedo and heat transport in 3-D model simulations of the early Archean climate |
title_full_unstemmed |
Albedo and heat transport in 3-D model simulations of the early Archean climate |
title_sort |
albedo and heat transport in 3-d model simulations of the early archean climate |
publisher |
München : European Geopyhsical Union |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.34657/780 https://oa.tib.eu/renate/handle/123456789/634 |
genre |
Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Sea ice |
op_source |
Climate of the Past, Volume 9, Issue 4, Page 1841-1862 |
op_rights |
CC BY 3.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.34657/780 |
_version_ |
1775355652293525504 |