Significance of uncertain phasing between the onsets of stadial–interstadial transitions in different Greenland ice core proxies
Different paleoclimate proxy records evidence repeated abrupt climate transitions during previous glacial intervals. These transitions are thought to comprise abrupt warming and increase in local precipitation over Greenland, sudden reorganization of the Northern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation,...
Main Authors: | , |
---|---|
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Katlenburg-Lindau : Copernicus Ges.
2021
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://oa.tib.eu/renate/handle/123456789/7820 https://doi.org/10.34657/6861 |
id |
ftleibnizopen:oai:oai.leibnizopen.de:yw4xZIcBdbrxVwz69sZf |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftleibnizopen:oai:oai.leibnizopen.de:yw4xZIcBdbrxVwz69sZf 2023-05-15T16:26:48+02:00 Significance of uncertain phasing between the onsets of stadial–interstadial transitions in different Greenland ice core proxies Riechers, Keno Boers, Niklas 2021 application/pdf https://oa.tib.eu/renate/handle/123456789/7820 https://doi.org/10.34657/6861 eng eng Katlenburg-Lindau : Copernicus Ges. CC BY 4.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Climate of the past : CP 17 (2021), Nr. 4 atmospheric circulation Dansgaard-Oeschger cycle global warming ice core ice retreat interstadial Northern Hemisphere paleoclimate proxy climate record sea ice uncertainty analysis Atlantic Ocean Atlantic Ocean (North) Greenland 550 article Text 2021 ftleibnizopen https://doi.org/10.34657/6861 2023-04-09T23:31:27Z Different paleoclimate proxy records evidence repeated abrupt climate transitions during previous glacial intervals. These transitions are thought to comprise abrupt warming and increase in local precipitation over Greenland, sudden reorganization of the Northern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation, and retreat of sea ice in the North Atlantic. The physical mechanism underlying these so-called Dansgaard–Oeschger (DO) events remains debated. A recent analysis of Greenland ice core proxy records found that transitions in Na+ concentrations and δ18O values are delayed by about 1 decade with respect to corresponding transitions in Ca2+ concentrations and in the annual layer thickness during DO events. These delays are interpreted as a temporal lag of sea-ice retreat and Greenland warming with respect to a synoptic- and hemispheric-scale atmospheric reorganization at the onset of DO events and may thereby help constrain possible triggering mechanisms for the DO events. However, the explanatory power of these results is limited by the uncertainty of the transition onset detection in noisy proxy records. Here, we extend previous work by testing the significance of the reported lags with respect to the null hypothesis that the proposed transition order is in fact not systematically favored. If the detection uncertainties are averaged out, the temporal delays in the δ18O and Na+ transitions with respect to their counterparts in Ca2+ and the annual layer thickness are indeed pairwise statistically significant. In contrast, under rigorous propagation of uncertainty, three statistical tests cannot provide evidence against the null hypothesis. We thus confirm the previously reported tendency of delayed transitions in the δ18O and Na+ concentration records. Yet, given the uncertainties in the determination of the transition onsets, it cannot be decided whether these tendencies are truly the imprint of a prescribed transition order or whether they are due to chance. The analyzed set of DO transitions can therefore not serve as ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Greenland ice core ice core North Atlantic North Greenland Sea ice LeibnizOpen (The Leibniz Association) Greenland |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
LeibnizOpen (The Leibniz Association) |
op_collection_id |
ftleibnizopen |
language |
English |
topic |
atmospheric circulation Dansgaard-Oeschger cycle global warming ice core ice retreat interstadial Northern Hemisphere paleoclimate proxy climate record sea ice uncertainty analysis Atlantic Ocean Atlantic Ocean (North) Greenland 550 |
spellingShingle |
atmospheric circulation Dansgaard-Oeschger cycle global warming ice core ice retreat interstadial Northern Hemisphere paleoclimate proxy climate record sea ice uncertainty analysis Atlantic Ocean Atlantic Ocean (North) Greenland 550 Riechers, Keno Boers, Niklas Significance of uncertain phasing between the onsets of stadial–interstadial transitions in different Greenland ice core proxies |
topic_facet |
atmospheric circulation Dansgaard-Oeschger cycle global warming ice core ice retreat interstadial Northern Hemisphere paleoclimate proxy climate record sea ice uncertainty analysis Atlantic Ocean Atlantic Ocean (North) Greenland 550 |
description |
Different paleoclimate proxy records evidence repeated abrupt climate transitions during previous glacial intervals. These transitions are thought to comprise abrupt warming and increase in local precipitation over Greenland, sudden reorganization of the Northern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation, and retreat of sea ice in the North Atlantic. The physical mechanism underlying these so-called Dansgaard–Oeschger (DO) events remains debated. A recent analysis of Greenland ice core proxy records found that transitions in Na+ concentrations and δ18O values are delayed by about 1 decade with respect to corresponding transitions in Ca2+ concentrations and in the annual layer thickness during DO events. These delays are interpreted as a temporal lag of sea-ice retreat and Greenland warming with respect to a synoptic- and hemispheric-scale atmospheric reorganization at the onset of DO events and may thereby help constrain possible triggering mechanisms for the DO events. However, the explanatory power of these results is limited by the uncertainty of the transition onset detection in noisy proxy records. Here, we extend previous work by testing the significance of the reported lags with respect to the null hypothesis that the proposed transition order is in fact not systematically favored. If the detection uncertainties are averaged out, the temporal delays in the δ18O and Na+ transitions with respect to their counterparts in Ca2+ and the annual layer thickness are indeed pairwise statistically significant. In contrast, under rigorous propagation of uncertainty, three statistical tests cannot provide evidence against the null hypothesis. We thus confirm the previously reported tendency of delayed transitions in the δ18O and Na+ concentration records. Yet, given the uncertainties in the determination of the transition onsets, it cannot be decided whether these tendencies are truly the imprint of a prescribed transition order or whether they are due to chance. The analyzed set of DO transitions can therefore not serve as ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Riechers, Keno Boers, Niklas |
author_facet |
Riechers, Keno Boers, Niklas |
author_sort |
Riechers, Keno |
title |
Significance of uncertain phasing between the onsets of stadial–interstadial transitions in different Greenland ice core proxies |
title_short |
Significance of uncertain phasing between the onsets of stadial–interstadial transitions in different Greenland ice core proxies |
title_full |
Significance of uncertain phasing between the onsets of stadial–interstadial transitions in different Greenland ice core proxies |
title_fullStr |
Significance of uncertain phasing between the onsets of stadial–interstadial transitions in different Greenland ice core proxies |
title_full_unstemmed |
Significance of uncertain phasing between the onsets of stadial–interstadial transitions in different Greenland ice core proxies |
title_sort |
significance of uncertain phasing between the onsets of stadial–interstadial transitions in different greenland ice core proxies |
publisher |
Katlenburg-Lindau : Copernicus Ges. |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://oa.tib.eu/renate/handle/123456789/7820 https://doi.org/10.34657/6861 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland Greenland ice core ice core North Atlantic North Greenland Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Greenland Greenland ice core ice core North Atlantic North Greenland Sea ice |
op_source |
Climate of the past : CP 17 (2021), Nr. 4 |
op_rights |
CC BY 4.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.34657/6861 |
_version_ |
1766015785747087360 |