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...
Published in: | Nature Climate Change |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Nature Publishing Group
2020
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/91701/ https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/91701/1/18887_2_merged_1594159790.pdf |
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 be- cause 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, in- cluding 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 mod- els. 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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