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1.
J. D. Hays, J. Imbrie, and N. J. Shackleton (1976, Science194, 1121–1132) showed that the astronomical theory explained many features of late Quaternary ice-age climates, but they did not specify the physical mechanisms involved. Here it is proposed that interlocked variations of ice-sheet heat sinks in both polar hemispheres amplified and transmitted Milankovitch summer half-year insolation changes (a version of the astronomical theory) between 45° and 75°N into the globally synchronous climate changes recorded in geologic records. It is suggested that late Quaternary ice sheets had terrestrial components (grounded above sea level, melting margins, fluctuations controlled by climate) and marine components (grounded below sea level, drained largely by ice streams, limited melting margins, fluctuations controlled primarily by sea level and secondarily by climate, interior surface elevations coupled to downdraw through ice streams). Northern Hemisphere ice sheets were largely marine (with minor melting margins) in the Arctic and terrestrial (with major melting margins) in the midlatitudes. West Antarctic and peripheral East Antarctic ice was marine-based and lacked melting margins. Because of their geographic array, these terrestrial and marine components formed an ice-sheet system whose variations were coupled on a global scale. Milankovitch summer isolation changes near midlatitude Northern Hemisphere melting margins controlled most variations of this system, because advance or retreat of melting margins initiated concurrent eustatic sea-level change. Such sea-level change afforded the critical interlocking mechanism between terrestrial and marine components because it forced simultaneous expansion or contraction of marine margins in both polar hemispheres. This initiated an amplifying feedback loop among all marine components and influenced interior downdraw through ice streams. Arctic summer insolation change was less important because northern melting margins were relatively minor. Its greatest influence was on surface ablation of ice streams that controlled interior downdraw. This affected eustatic sea level and activated global linkage of marine sectors. By analogy with present-day Antarctica, late Quaternary ice sheets were enormous planetary heat sinks due to their reflective and radiative surface characteristics. It is suggested that the effectiveness of these ice-sheet heat sinks varied with their areal extent and interior surface elevation. Thus, it is postulated that concurrent growth or decay of these interlocked ice-sheet heat sinks in both polar hemispheres served as the global amplifier of regional Milankovitch summer insolation.  相似文献   

2.
T. Hughes   《Quaternary Science Reviews》2009,28(19-20):1831-1849
Three facts should guide ice-sheet modeling. (1) Ice height above the bed is controlled by the strength of ice-bed coupling, reducing ice thickness by some 90 percent when coupling vanishes. (2) Ice-bed coupling vanishes along ice streams that end as floating ice shelves and drain up to 90 percent of an ice sheet. (3) Because of (1) and (2), ice sheets can rapidly collapse and disintegrate, thereby removing ice sheets from Earth's climate system and forcing abrupt climate change. The first model of ice-sheet dynamics was developed in Australia and applied to the present Antarctic Ice Sheet in 1970. It treated slow sheet flow, which prevails over some 90 percent of the ice sheet, but is the least dynamic component. The model made top-down calculations of ice velocities and temperatures, based on known surface conditions and an assumed basal geothermal heat flux. In 1972, Joseph Fletcher proposed a six-step research strategy for studying dynamic systems. The first step was identifying the most dynamic components, which for Antarctica are fast ice streams that discharge up to 90 percent of the ice. Ice-sheet models developed at the University of Maine in the 1970s were based on the Fletcher strategy and focused on ice streams, including calving dynamics when ice streams end in water. These models calculated the elevation of ice sheets based in the strength of ice-bed coupling. This was a bottom-up approach that lowered ice elevations some 90 percent when ice-bed coupling vanished. Top-down modeling is able to simulate changes in the size and shape of ice sheets through a whole glaciation cycle, provided the mass balance is treated correctly. Bottom-up modeling is able to produce accurate changes in ice elevations based on changes in ice-bed coupling, provided the force balance is treated correctly. Truly holistic ice-sheet models should synthesize top-down and bottom-up approaches by combining the mass balance with the force balance in ways that merge abrupt changes in stream flow with slow changes in sheet flow. Then discharging 90 percent of the ice by ice streams mobilizes 90 percent of the area so ice sheets can self-destruct, and thereby terminate a glaciation cycle.  相似文献   

3.
At the 41,000-period of orbital tilt, summer insolation forces a lagged response in northern ice sheets. This delayed ice signal is rapidly transferred to nearby northern oceans and landmasses by atmospheric dynamics. These ice-driven responses lead to late-phased changes in atmospheric CO2 that provide positive feedback to the ice sheets and also project ‘late’ 41-K forcing across the tropics and the Southern Hemisphere. Responses in austral regions are also influenced by a fast response to summer insolation forcing at high southern latitudes.At the 22,000-year precession period, northern summer insolation again forces a lagged ice-sheet response, but with muted transfers to proximal regions and no subsequent effect on atmospheric CO2. Most 22,000-year greenhouse-gas responses have the ‘early’ phase of July insolation. July forcing of monsoonal and boreal wetlands explains the early CH4 response. The slightly later 22-K CO2 response originates in the southern hemisphere. The early 22-K CH4 and CO2 responses add to insolation forcing of the ice sheets.The dominant 100,000-year response of ice sheets is not externally forced, nor does it result from internal resonance. Internal forcing appears to play at most a minor role. The origin of this signal lies mainly in internal feedbacks (CO2 and ice albedo) that drive the gradual build-up of large ice sheets and then their rapid destruction. Ice melting during terminations is initiated by uniquely coincident forcing from insolation and greenhouse gases at the periods of tilt and precession.  相似文献   

4.
汉景泰 《第四纪研究》1996,16(2):176-180
大洋环流型式转换在冰期旋回中的作用及经典第四纪冰期理论质疑(续)汉景泰W.S.Fyfe(加拿大西安大略大学地质系)4问题及讨论大洋环流-气候学说认为从冰期到间冰期海洋-大气系统全球性巨型再组合导致了末次冰期的终止。  相似文献   

5.
《Quaternary Science Reviews》2003,22(15-17):1597-1629
The SPECMAP models of orbital-scale climate change (Imbrie et al., Paleoceanography 7 (1992) 701, Paleoceanography 8 (1993) 699) are the most comprehensive to date: all major climatic observations were analyzed within the framework of the three orbital signals. Subsequently, tuning of signals in Vostok ice to insolation forcing has fixed the timing of greenhouse-gas changes closely enough to permit an assessment of their orbital-scale climatic role. In addition, evidence from several sources has suggested changes in the SPECMAP δ18O time scale. This new information indicates that the timing of CO2 changes at the periods of precession and obliquity does not fit the 1992 SPECMAP model of a “train” of responses initiated in the north, propagated to the south, and later returning north to force the ice sheets. In addition, analysis of the effects of rectification on 100,000-year climatic signals reveals that all have a phase on or near that of eccentricity. This close clustering of phases rules out the long time constants for 100,000-year ice sheets required by the 1993 SPECMAP model.A new hypotheses presented here revives elements of an earlier CLIMAP view (Hays et al., Science 194 (1976a) 1121) but adds a new assessment of the role of greenhouse gases.As proposed by Milankovitch, summer (mid-July) insolation forces northern hemisphere ice sheets at the obliquity and precession periods, with an ice time constant derived here of 10,000 years. Changes in ice volume at 41,000 years drive ice-proximal signals (SST, NADW, dust) that produce a strong positive CO2 feedback and further amplify ice-volume changes. At the precession period, July insolation forces ice sheets but it also drives fast and early responses in CH4 through changes in tropical monsoons and boreal wetlands, and variations in CO2 through southern hemisphere processes. These CH4 and CO2 responses enhance insolation forcing of ice volume.Climatic responses at 100,000 years result from eccentricity pacing of forced processes embedded in obliquity and precession cycles. Increased modulation of precession by eccentricity every 100,000 years produces 23,000-year CO2 and CH4 maxima that enhance ablation caused by summer insolation and drive climate deeper into an interglacial state. When eccentricity modulation decreases at the 100,000-year cycle, ice sheets grow larger in response to obliquity forcing and activate a 41,000-year CO2 feedback that drives climate deeper into a glacial state. Alternation of these forced processes because of eccentricity pacing produces the 100,000-year cycle. The 100,000-year cycle began 0.9 Myr ago because gradual global cooling allowed ice sheets to survive during weak precession insolation maxima and grow large enough during 41,000-year ice-volume maxima to generate strong positive CO2 feedback.The natural orbital-scale timing of these processes indicates that ice sheets should have appeared 6000–3500 years ago and that CO2 and CH4 concentrations should have fallen steadily from 11,000 years ago until now. But new ice did not appear, and CO2 and CH4 began anomalous increases at 8000 and 5000 years ago, respectively. Human generation of CO2 and CH4 is implicated in these anomalous trends and in the failure of ice sheets to appear in Canada.  相似文献   

6.
Ice sheets are the only components of Earth’s climate system that can self-destruct. This paper presents the quantitative force balance for bottom-up modeling of ice sheets, as first presented qualitatively in this journal as a way to quantify ice-bed uncoupling leading to self-destruction of ice sheets (Hughes, 2009a). Rapid changes in sea level and climate can result if a large ice-sheet self-destructs quickly, as did the former Laurentide Ice Sheet of North America between 8100 and 7900 BP, thereby terminating the last cycle of Quaternary glaciation. Ice streams discharge up to 90 percent of ice from past and present ice sheets. A hypothesis is presented in which self-destruction of an ice sheet begins when ubiquitous ice-bed decoupling, quantified as a floating fraction of ice, proceeds along ice streams. This causes ice streams to surge and reduce thickness by some 90 percent, and height above sea level by up to 99 percent for floating ice, so the ice sheet undergoes gravitational collapse. Ice collapsing over marine embayments becomes floating ice shelves that may then disintegrate rapidly. This floods the world ocean with icebergs that reduce the ocean-to-atmosphere heat exchange, thereby triggering climate change. Calving bays migrate up low stagnating ice streams and carve out the accumulation zone of the collapsed ice sheet, which prevents its recovery, decreases Earth’s albedo, and terminates the glaciation cycle. This sequence of events may coincide with a proposed life cycle of ice streams that drain the ice sheet. A first-order treatment of these life cycles is presented that depends on the longitudinal force balance along the flowbands of ice streams and gives a first approximation to ice-bed uncoupling at snapshots during gravitational collapse into ice shelves that disintegrate, thereby removing the ice sheet. The stability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet is assessed using this bottom-up approach.  相似文献   

7.
Predicting the future response of ice sheets to climate warming and rising global sea level is important but difficult. This is especially so when fast-flowing glaciers or ice streams, buffered by ice shelves, are grounded on beds below sea level. What happens when these ice shelves are removed? And how do the ice stream and the surrounding ice sheet respond to the abruptly altered boundary conditions? To address these questions and others we present new geological, geomorphological, geophysical and geochronological data from the ice-stream-dominated NW sector of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS). The study area covers around 45 000 km2 of NW Scotland and the surrounding continental shelf. Alongside seabed geomorphological mapping and Quaternary sediment analysis, we use a suite of over 100 new absolute ages (including cosmogenic-nuclide exposure ages, optically stimulated luminescence ages and radiocarbon dates) collected from onshore and offshore, to build a sector-wide ice-sheet reconstruction combining all available evidence with Bayesian chronosequence modelling. Using this information we present a detailed assessment of ice-sheet advance/retreat history, and the glaciological connections between different areas of the NW BIIS sector, at different times during the last glacial cycle. The results show a highly dynamic, partly marine, partly terrestrial, ice-sheet sector undergoing large size variations in response to sub-millennial-scale climatic (Dansgaard–Oeschger) cycles over the last 45 000 years. Superimposed on these trends we identify internally driven instabilities, operating at higher frequency, conditioned by local topographic factors, tidewater dynamics and glaciological feedbacks during deglaciation. Specifically, our new evidence indicates extensive marine-terminating ice-sheet glaciation of the NW BIIS sector during Greenland Stadials 12 to 9 – prior to the main ‘Late Weichselian’ ice-sheet glaciation. After a period of restricted glaciation, in Greenland Interstadials 8 to 6, we find good evidence for rapid renewed ice-sheet build-up in NW Scotland, with the Minch ice-stream terminus reaching the continental shelf edge in Greenland Stadial 5, perhaps only briefly. Deglaciation of the NW sector took place in numerous stages. Several grounding-zone wedges and moraines on the mid- and inner continental shelf attest to significant stabilizations of the ice-sheet grounding line, or ice margin, during overall retreat in Greenland Stadials 3 and 2, and to the development of ice shelves. NW Lewis was the first substantial present-day land area to deglaciate, in the first half of Greenland Stadial 3 at a time of globally reduced sea-level c. 26 kabp , followed by Cape Wrath at c. 24 kabp. The topographic confinement of the Minch straits probably promoted ice-shelf development in early Greenland Stadial 2, providing the ice stream with additional support and buffering it somewhat from external drivers. However, c. 20–19 kabp , as the grounding-line migrated into shoreward deepening water, coinciding with a marked change in marine geology and bed strength, the ice stream became unstable. We find that, once underway, grounding-line retreat proceeded in an uninterrupted fashion with the rapid loss of fronting ice shelves – first in the west, then the east troughs – before eventual glacier stabilization at fjord mouths in NW Scotland by ~17 kabp. Around the same time, ~19–17 kabp , ice-sheet lobes readvanced into the East Minch – possibly a glaciological response to the marine-instability-triggered loss of adjacent ice stream (and/or ice shelf) support in the Minch trough. An independent ice cap on Lewis also experienced margin oscillations during mid-Greenland Stadial 2, with an ice-accumulation centre in West Lewis existing into the latter part of Heinrich Stadial 1. Final ice-sheet deglaciation of NW mainland Scotland was punctuated by at least one other coherent readvance at c. 15.5 kabp , before significant ice-mass losses thereafter. At the glacial termination, c. 14.5 kabp , glaciers fed outwash sediment to now-abandoned coastal deltas in NW mainland Scotland around the time of global Meltwater Pulse 1A. Overall, this work on the BIIS NW sector reconstructs a highly dynamic ice-sheet oscillating in extent and volume for much of the last 45 000 years. Periods of expansive ice-sheet glaciation dominated by ice-streaming were interspersed with periods of much more restricted ice-cap or tidewater/fjordic glaciation. Finally, this work indicates that the role of ice streams in ice-sheet evolution is complex but mechanistically important throughout the lifetime of an ice sheet – with ice streams contributing to the regulation of ice-sheet health but also to the acceleration of ice-sheet demise via marine ice-sheet instabilities.  相似文献   

8.
The Northern Hemisphere ice sheets decayed rapidly during deglacial phases of the ice-age cycle, producing meltwater fluxes that may have been of sufficient magnitude to perturb oceanic circulation. The continental record of ice-sheet history is more obscured during the growth and advance of the last great ice sheets, ca. 120,000–20,000 yr B.P., but ice cores tell of high-amplitude, millennial-scale climate fluctuations that prevailed throughout this period. These climatic excursions would have provoked significant fluctuation of ice-sheet margins and runoff variability whenever ice sheets extended to mid-latitudes, giving a complex pattern of freshwater delivery to the oceans. A model of continental surface hydrology is coupled with an ice-dynamics model simulating the last glacial cycle in North America. Meltwater discharged from ice sheets is either channeled down continental drainage pathways or stored temporarily in large systems of proglacial lakes that border the retreating ice-sheet margin. The coupled treatment provides quantitative estimates of the spatial and temporal patterns of freshwater flux to the continental margins. Results imply an intensified surface hydrological environment when ice sheets are present, despite a net decrease in precipitation during glacial periods. Diminished continental evaporation and high levels of meltwater production combine to give mid-latitude runoff values that are highly variable through the glacial cycle, but are two to three times in excess of modern river fluxes; drainage to the North Atlantic via the St. Lawrence, Hudson, and Mississippi River catchments averages 0.356 Sv for the period 60,000–10,000 yr B.P., compared to 0.122 Sv for the past 10,000 yr. High-amplitude meltwater pulses to the Gulf of Mexico, North Atlantic, and North Pacific occur throughout the glacial period, with ice-sheet geometry controlling intricate patterns of freshwater routing variability. Runoff from North America is staged in the final deglaciation, with a stepped sequence of pulses through the Mississippi, St. Lawrence, Arctic, and Hudson Strait drainages.  相似文献   

9.
A model for predicting the growth and decay of ice sheets based on the astronomical theory of climate change is presented. The purpose of the study in part is to isolate the role of the ice-sheet physics and earth response under varying ice load by simplifying to the extreme the role of the hydrosphere-atmosphere. Ice sheet physics and the response of the lithosphere-asthenosphere under the ice load are modeled explicitly. Insolation anomalies (taken at a fixed latitude) directly force latitudinal displacement of the snow line. Accumulation rate a, and ablation rate a′ evaluated at mean sea level are specificed as external constants; a,a′ decrease linearly with ice sheet elevation. Rough tuning of the model to the general shape of the ice-volume record of the last two major glacials determines the external constants. Model predictions of the ages of several events in the last major glaciation compare well with the radiological ages. The six glacial terminatios (I–VI) over the last 600,000 yr are identified and the predicted ages compare reasonably well with the δ18O record for two deep-sea cores. A direct comparison of model power spectra of ice volume as a function of period with spectra of the δ18O record shows apparent underprediction of power near 100,000 yr. When a quantitative but heuristic method for taking into account the “red noise” spectrum evident in the geological records is used, a much more favorable comparison is possible. The model prediction lends support to the hypothesis that the nonlinearity of the ice-sheet physics is responsible for the 100,000-yr periodicity in the geological record of the late Pleistocene.  相似文献   

10.
The GISP2, central Greealand, glaciochemical series (sodium, potassium, ammonium,calcium, magnesium, sulfate, nitrate and chloride) provides a unique view of the chemistry of the atmosphere and the history of atmospheric circulation over much of the Northern Hemisphere. Interpretation of this record reveals the controls on both high and low frequency climate events of the last 110 000 years.Changes in insolation on the order of the major orbital cycles control the long-term behavior of atmospheric circulation patterns through changes in ice volume (sea level) and related positive feedbacks.Events such as the Heinrich events (massive discharges of icebergs first identified in the marine record)are found to operate on a 6 100 year cycle due largely to the lagged response of ice sheets to changes in insolation and consequent glacier dynamics Rapid climate change events (massive reorganizations of atmospheric circulation) are demonstrated to operate on 1 450 year cycle possibly in response to internal oscillations in the ocean-atmosphere system or due to changes in solar output. Changes in insolation and associated positive feedbacks related to ice sheets assist in explaining favorable time periods and controls on the amplitude of these massive rapid climate change events.Comparison of the GISP2 glaciochemical series with an ice record from Taylor Dome in Antarctica indicates considerable similarity suggesting that both polar regions experience marked changes in climate. While preliminary evidence points to similar phasing of several major climate events in the two polar regions exact phasing cannot as yet be determined, because dating of Antarctic ice core records is not as well-established as the dating for Greenland ice cores.  相似文献   

11.
中更新世气候转型与100ka周期研究   总被引:6,自引:0,他引:6  
中更新世气候转型是第四纪气候变化中最重要的特征之一,它是指全球气候的主导周期在中更新世时从41ka转变为100ka,且气候波动的幅度也加大。经典的Milankovitch假说不能完全解释中更新世气候转型的原因以及100ka周期在气候记录中的强烈表现,因为太阳辐射与气候记录之间存在着相当的差异,尤其是二者在变化幅度上不匹配。近年来围绕这一转型过程的时代和原因获得了一些新的进展,主要是针对中更新世气候转型的时间、对气候记录中100ka周期的重新检讨以及非太阳辐射因素在这一转型过程中所起的作用。其它可能的转型原因包括大冰盖、温室气体、地球轨道面倾角、冰盖基底、构造隆升等。  相似文献   

12.
We present atmospheric simulations of three different time slices of the late Quaternary using the ECHAM 3 general circulation model in T42 resolution. In this work we describe the results of model runs for the time slices 6000 years BP (last climate optimum), 21 000 BP (last glacial maximum) and 115 000 years BP (glacial inception). Although the solar insolation is known for all time slices, a complete data set of the other boundary conditions which are necessary for running the atmospheric model exists only for the last glacial maximum in the form of the CLIMAP reconstruction. For the other two time slices, which are interglacial states like the modern climate, sea surface temperatures, land albedo and ice sheet topography are kept at modern values and only the solar insolation is changed appropriately. The response of the model to solar insolation changes is quite reasonable. The modelled anomalies are small and roughly opposite in sign for 6000 BP and 115 000 BP, respectively. In the case of last glacial maximum, the glacial ice sheet topography and ice albedo produce a much larger climate anomaly in the model. However, to enable a real test of model performance under glacial boundary conditions, the CLIMAP sea surface temperatures, which are now known to be partly inaccurate, should be replaced by an updated “state-of-the-art” reconstruction.  相似文献   

13.
A vertically integrated ice-flow model suitable for use in climate studies is formulated. Large continental ice sheets may be characterized by two fundamental quantities: the height-to-width ratio, and the steepness of the edge. So it is natural to develop a model containing two parameters that can be chosen to give the right values of those characteristic quantities. The result is a model that is close to M. A. W. Mahaffy's (Journal of Geophysical Research, 81, 1059–1066 (1976)). The model is used to study glaciation in Europe. Dropping the level of zero mass balance creates small stable ice caps in the Alps and the Scandinavian mountains. If the drop exceeds 600 m (with respect to present-day conditions), the feedback between ice-sheet height and mass balance becomes dominating and the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet keeps growing. It does not reach an equilibrium state within 60,000 yr. An experiment simulating rapid onset of a glacial cycle shows that the growth of ice volume in Europe is smaller than that in northern America (J. T. Andrews and M. A. W. Mahaffy, Quaternary Research, 6, 167–183 (1976)). After 10,000 yr, the volume of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet (2 × 1015 m3) is about half the volume of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. This leaves the “observed” sea-level lowering in the period 125,000–115,000 yr B.P. (estimates center around 50 m) unexplained.  相似文献   

14.
The vegetation on the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau is highly sensitive to climatic changes and thus represents a potentially interesting environmental archive. Pollen samples from the Fanjiaping Loess section in Lanzhou on the western Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) were analyzed in conjunction with OSL dating. The results indicate that pollen zone B (60.6–46.0 ka, correlative to the early MIS 3) had the greatest abundances of Cupressaceae, Tsuga, Gramineae and Cyperaceae of the entire section, suggesting a warm phase during the last glacial period. These pollen taxa decreased significantly in abundance in the zones C (46.0–39.0 ka) and D (39.0–27.0 ka), reflecting a substantial climate cooling from the middle MIS 3 to MIS 2. These results correlate with climate records from the South China Sea, the CLP, Baikal Lake, North America, North Atlantic Ocean and other regions, and probably correspond with the decline of northern high-latitude insolation and the increase of global ice volume from 50 to 20 ka. In particular, arboreal pollen, fern spore and algae abundances declined sharply since ~40 ka, while shrub and herb pollen reached the highest abundances. Conifer pollen Picea and Abies abundance also rose markedly and increased up the section. This implies significant climate deterioration and likely corresponded with substantial growth of the polar ice sheets since ~40 ka. The decreasing temperature caused by an insolation decline during the last glacial period probably reinforced the cooling effect in a ‘snow/ice/albedo’ feedback, which would result in less climate sensitivity to radiative forcing. Meanwhile, vegetation decline in the Northern Hemisphere during the last glacial period and tundra development at high latitudes possibly caused additional cooling, enhancing the growth of polar ice sheets since 40 ka. The development of polar ice sheets increased the polar-to-equator temperature and pressure gradients, strengthening the westerlies and supplying plenty of moisture to Northwest China during 40–30 ka. Lake sediments developed widely on the Tibetan Plateau during 40–30 ka, probably related to an increase in the seasonality of middle-to-low latitude insolation which caused an enhancement of glacier melting on the Plateau.  相似文献   

15.
Britta Bielefeld 《GeoJournal》1997,42(2-3):329-336
In recent years, attention has increasingly been paid to the question of the stability of the earth's climate. It has been observed that changes in climate are usually related to changes in the earth's surface. On this question, Liedtke writes ‘A change in climate can lead to considerable landscape changes’ (Liedtke 1990, p. 38). There seems to be some form of interaction between climate and the condition of the earth's surface. If solar radiation is taken to be the primary energy source for the earth's climate, the question arises as to how insolation affects the character of the earth's surface, and vice versa, how does the character of the earth's surface affect the insolation which occurs? Reconstructions of the last great Pleistocene glaciation 18,000 years ago show that the form of the earth's surface at that time was considerably different to its present form. In view of the interaction mentioned above between climate and earth surface, does this suggest a difference between the earth's radiation budget 18,000 years ago and that of today? If, as is widely believed, the area of the earth's surface covered by ice 18,000 years ago was approximately three times the current area (Liedtke 1990, p. 42), this presumably would have had at least some influence on the earth's radiation budget. The ice-covered areas may have modified the radiation budget by means of their high reflexivity. In other words, an albedo-related loss of radiation may have occurred. The results of this investigations show, that the global radiation budget at 18,000 B.P was about 7- -10% less than that of today.  相似文献   

16.
Climate: Is the past the key to the future?   总被引:2,自引:0,他引:2  
 The climate of the Holocene is not well suited to be the baseline for the climate of the planet. It is an interglacial, a state typical of only 10% of the past few million years. It is a time of relative sea-level stability after a rapid 130-m rise from the lowstand during the last glacial maximum. Physical geologic processes are operating at unusual rates and much of the geochemical system is not in a steady state. During most of the Phanerozoic there have been no continental ice sheets on the earth, and the planet’s meridional temperature gradient has been much less than it is presently. Major factors influencing climate are insolation, greenhouse gases, paleogeography, and vegetation; the first two are discussed in this paper. Changes in the earth’s orbital parameters affect the amount of radiation received from the sun at different latitudes over the course of the year. During the last climate cycle, the waxing and waning of the northern hemisphere continental ice sheets closely followed the changes in summer insolation at the latitude of the northern hemisphere polar circle. The overall intensity of insolation in the northern hemisphere is governed by the precession of the earth’s axis of rotation, and the precession and ellipticity of the earth’s orbit. At the polar circle a meridional minimum of summer insolation becomes alternately more and less pronounced as the obliquity of the earth’s axis of rotation changes. Feedback processes amplify the insolation signal. Greenhouse gases (H2O, CO2, CH4, CFCs) modulate the insolation-driven climate. The atmospheric content of CO2 during the last glacial maximum was approximately 30% less than during the present interglacial. A variety of possible causes for this change have been postulated. The present burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and cement manufacture since the beginning of the industrial revolution have added CO2 to the atmosphere when its content due to glacial-interglacial variation was already at a maximum. Anthropogenic activity has increased the CO2 content of the atmosphere to 130% of its previous Holocene level, probably higher than at any time during the past few million years. During the Late Cretaceous the atmospheric CO2 content was probably about four times that of the present, the level to which it may rise at the end of the next century. The results of a Campanian (80 Ma) climate simulation suggest that the positive feedback between CO2 and another important greenhouse gas, H2O, raised the earth’s temperature to a level where latent heat transport became much more significant than it is presently, and operated efficiently at all latitudes. Atmospheric high- and low-pressure systems were as much the result of variations in the vapor content of the air as of temperature differences. In our present state of knowledge, future climate change is unpredictable because by adding CO2 to the atmosphere we are forcing the climate toward a “greenhouse” mode when it is accustomed to moving between the glacial–interglacial “icehouse” states that reflect the waxing and waning of ice sheets. At the same time we are replacing freely transpiring C3 plants with water-conserving C4 plants, producing a global vegetation complex that has no past analog. The past climates of the earth cannot be used as a direct guide to what may occur in the future. To understand what may happen in the future we must learn about the first principles of physics and chemistry related to the earth’s system. The fundamental mechanisms of the climate system are best explored in simulations of the earth’s ancient extreme climates. Received: 7 November 1996/Accepted: 23 January 1997  相似文献   

17.
We present here a simple and novel proposal for the modulation and rhythm of ice-ages and interglacials during the late Pleistocene. While the standard Milankovitch-precession theory fails to explain the long intervals between interglacials, these can be accounted for by a novel forcing and feedback system involving CO_2, dust and albedo. During the glacial period, the high albedo of the northern ice sheets drives down global temperatures and CO_2 concentrations, despite subsequent precessional forcing maxima. Over the following millennia more CO_2 is sequestered in the oceans and atmospheric concentrations eventually reach a critical minima of about 200 ppm, which combined with arid conditions,causes a die-back of temperate and boreal forests and grasslands, especially at high altitude. The ensuing soil erosion generates dust storms, resulting in increased dust deposition and lower albedo on the northern ice sheets. As northern hemisphere insolation increases during the next Milankovitch cycle, the dust-laden ice-sheets absorb considerably more insolation and undergo rapid melting, which forces the climate into an interglacial period. The proposed mechanism is simple, robust, and comprehensive in its scope, and its key elements are well supported by empirical evidence.  相似文献   

18.
A numerical model was designed to study the stability of a marine ice sheet, and used to do some basic experiments. The ice-shelf/ice-sheet interaction enters through the flow law in which the longitudinal stress is also taken into account. Instead of applying the model to some (measured) profile and showing that this is unstable (as is common practice in other studies), an attempt is made to simulate a whole cycle of growth and retreat of a marine ice sheet, although none of the model sheets is particularly sensitive to changes in environmental conditions. The question as to what might happen to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the near future when a climatic warming can be expecied as a result of the CO2 effect, seems to be open for discussion again. From the results presented in this paper one can infer that a collapse, caused by increased melting on the ice shelves, is not very likely.  相似文献   

19.
Foraminiferal oxygen-isotope data from 24 tropical Atlantic sediment cores, constrained by 77 14C dates, are stacked to form a composite record of isotopic Termination 1.. This record indicates that most of the isotopic transition at the end of the last ice age occurred between 14 ka BP and 6 ka BP. Minor isotopic expression of deglaciation is permitted as early as 16 ka BP, but the most rapid rate of change occurred between 14 ka BP and 12 ka BP. Three ‘steps’ of maximum change are present. Although they are close to the statistical limits of detection in the composite record, the clear presence of the steps in individual records suggests that they are real. We estimate their timing at 14-12 ka BP (Termination 1-a), 10-9 ka BP (Termination 1-b), and 8-6 ka BP (Termination 1-c).Centering of the termination near 11 ka BP is consistent with the ‘Milankovitch’ hypothesis that high summer insolation caused deglaciation. In detail, however, maximum rates of change prior to the 11 ka BP insolation extreme, and the inferred steps require additional mechanisms controlling the tempo of glacial-interglacial climate change. Steps equivalent to those in δ18O have not been detected in ice-margin retreat data. Steps in the isotopic transition, if real, may record thinning of the ice sheets not accompanied by loss of area. Alternation between near-equilibrium and near-stagnant ice-sheet profiles during deglaciation is hypothesized, perhaps due to calving and unstable ‘down-draw’ of the ice sheets followed by partial re-equilibration. Significant problems remain. The effects of temperature on the isotope record are only partially constrained. Presently available data allow only semi-quantitative intercalibration of ice volume, sea level, and isotopic estimates of glaciation.  相似文献   

20.
冰川/积雪-大气相互作用研究进展   总被引:10,自引:9,他引:1  
杨兴国  秦大河  秦翔 《冰川冻土》2012,34(2):392-402
冰川和积雪是冰冻圈的重要组成部分,在全球或区域气候系统中起着极其重要的作用.开展冰川/积雪-大气相互作用研究,是研究冰冻圈物理过程及其对气候系统反馈作用的必然需求,也是研究冰川/积雪对气候变化响应的有效手段,同时还可为全球(区域)气候和水文模式提供冰川/积雪面的地表特征参数.近一个世纪以来,在冰川/积雪面辐射特征、能量通量计算方法和平衡特征等方面开展了许多观测试验和理论研究,并取得了卓有成效的研究结果.但是在准确获取辐射通量、研发普适性较强的反照率参数化方案、复杂地形条件下能量通量的计算,以及发展分布式能量平衡模式等方面尚存在许多不确定性,仍面临许多技术难点,也是未来的研究重点.  相似文献   

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