White paper: The IPICS 40,000 year network: a bipolar record of climate forcing and response

Title White paper: The IPICS 40,000 year network: a bipolar record of climate forcing and response
Publication Type
Report
Year
2006
Author(s) Hubertus Fischer , Robert Mulvaney, Edward Brook, David Fisher, Massimo Frezzotti, Joseph McConnell, Eric J Steig, Eric Wolff
Journal/ Publication
International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences
Pagination
1-4
Abstract

Records of past climate are critical tools for ensuring that the relevant processes are represented in climate models: the same models used to predict future climate. Recent paleoclimate reconstructions clearly document that the Earth’s climate is an intricate interplay of oceanic, atmospheric, biogeochemical, and cryospheric processes. However, the reasons for changes in greenhouse gas concentrations and aerosol loads, sea-level and ice masses as well as their coupling to atmospheric and ocean circulation are still not sufficiently understood. Previous ice core records from central Greenland and East Antarctica defined the overall features of glacial and interglacial periods and transitions between them, and the characteristics of rapid climate change during the last ice age, at a few individual sites. However, the progression of deglaciation, the spatial evolution of climate change, and the processes responsible for those changes cannot be diagnosed from single locations. A network of temporally synchronized, high-resolution ice cores from both polar regions, documenting in greater spatial and temporal detail parameters that play a pivotal role in climate evolution, such as storm activity, marine biospheric productivity, sea ice and ice sheet extent is the key to diagnosing climate change mechanisms.

File
IPICS_40karray.pdf (985.29 KB)
URL
Special Collections International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS)
Citation Hubertus Fischer , Robert Mulvaney, Edward Brook, David Fisher, Massimo Frezzotti, Joseph McConnell, Eric J Steig, Eric Wolff ( 2006 ) White paper: The IPICS 40,000 year network: a bipolar record of climate forcing and response. International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences , 1-4 .
Lead Author
Hubertus Fischer