Sea-ice-free Arctic during the Last Interglacial supports fast future loss

The Last Interglacial (LIG), a warmer period 130-116 ka before present, is a potential analog for future climate change. Stronger LIG summertime insolation at high northern latitudes drove Arctic land summer temperatures 4-5 °C higher than the preindustrial era. Climate model simulations have previo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Guarino, MV, Sime, LC, Schröeder, D, Malmierca-Vallet, I, Rosenblum, E, Ringer, M, Ridley, J, Feltham, D, Bitz, C, Steig, EJ, Wolff, E, Stroeve, J, Sellar, A
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2020
Subjects:
37 Earth Sciences
3709 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience
3705 Geology
13 Climate Action
Arctic
Climate change
Sea ice
Online Access:https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/309133
https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.56230
Description
Summary:The Last Interglacial (LIG), a warmer period 130-116 ka before present, is a potential analog for future climate change. Stronger LIG summertime insolation at high northern latitudes drove Arctic land summer temperatures 4-5 °C higher than the preindustrial era. Climate model simulations have previously failed to capture these elevated temperatures, possibly because they were unable to correctly capture LIG sea-ice changes. Here, we show the latest version of the fully-coupled UK Hadley Center climate model (HadGEM3) simulates a more accurate Arctic LIG climate, including elevated temperatures. Improved model physics, including a sophisticated sea-ice melt-pond scheme, result in a complete simulated loss of Arctic sea ice in summer during the LIG, which has yet to be simulated in past generations of models. This ice-free Arctic yields a compelling solution to the longstanding puzzle of what drove LIG Arctic warmth and supports a fast retreat of future Arctic summer sea ice.

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