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Individual contribution of insolation and CO2 to the interglacial climates of the past 800,000 years

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Abstract

The individual contributions of insolation and greenhouse gases (GHG) to the interglacial climates of the past 800,000 years are quantified through simulations with a model of intermediate complexity LOVECLIM and using the factor separation technique. The interglacials are compared in terms of their forcings and responses of surface air temperature, vegetation and sea ice. The results show that the relative magnitude of the simulated interglacials is in reasonable agreement with proxy data. GHG plays a dominant role on the variations of the annual mean temperature of both the Globe and the southern high latitudes, whereas, insolation plays a dominant role on the variations of tree fraction, precipitation and of the northern high latitude temperature and sea ice. The Mid-Brunhes Event (MBE) appears to be significant only in GHG and climate variables dominated by it. The results also show that the relative importance of GHG and insolation on the warmth intensity varies from one interglacial to another. For the warmest (MIS-9 and MIS-5) and coolest (MIS-17 and MIS-13) interglacials, GHG and insolation reinforce each other. MIS-11 (MIS-15) is a warm (cool) interglacial due to its high (low) GHG concentration, its insolation contributing to a cooling (warming). MIS-7, although with high GHG concentrations, can not be classified as a warm interglacial due to it large insolation-induced cooling. Related to these two forcings, MIS-19 appears to be the best analogue for MIS-1. In the response to insolation, the annual mean temperatures averaged over the globe and over southern high latitudes are highly linearly correlated with obliquity. However, precession becomes important in the temperature of the northern high latitudes and controls the tree fraction globally. Over the polar oceans, the response during the local winters, although the available energy is small, is larger than during the local summers due to the summer remnant effect. The sensitivity to double CO2 is the highest for the coolest interglacial.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the European Research Council Advanced Grant EMIS (No 227348 of the Programme `Ideas’). Q.Z.Yin is supported by the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS). Access to computer facilities was made easier through sponsorship from S. A. Electrabel, Belgium. Thanks to Hugues Goosse for helpful discussions and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

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  1. George Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research, Earth and Life Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, 2, Chemin du Cyclotron, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Qiu Zhen Yin & André Berger

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  1. Qiu Zhen Yin
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Correspondence to Qiu Zhen Yin.

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Yin, Q.Z., Berger, A. Individual contribution of insolation and CO2 to the interglacial climates of the past 800,000 years. Clim Dyn 38, 709–724 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-011-1013-5

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