Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2016

Presentation information

Poster

Symbol M (Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary) » M-IS Intersection

[M-IS17] Paleoclimatology and paleoceanography

Mon. May 23, 2016 5:15 PM - 6:30 PM Poster Hall (International Exhibition Hall HALL6)

Convener:*Tomohisa Irino(Faculty of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University), Minoru Ikehara(Center for Advanced Marine Core Research, Kochi University), Akira Oka(Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo), Yusuke Okazaki(Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Kyushu University), Ikuko Kitaba(Research Centre for Palaleoclimatology, Ritsumeikan University), Akihisa Kitamura(Institute of Geosciences, Faculty of Science, Shizuoka University), Masaki Sano(Research Institute for Humanity and Nature), Ryuji Tada(Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Graduate School of Science, The Univeristy of Tokyo), Takeshi Nakagawa(Ritsumeikan University), Akira Hayashida(Department of Environmental Systems Science, Doshisha University)

5:15 PM - 6:30 PM

[MIS17-P29] The warm climate of the Mid to Late Pliocene as seen in MIROC climate modelling experiments

★Invited papers

*Wing-Le Chan1, Ayako Abe-Ouchi1,2 (1.Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, 2.Research Institute for Global Change, JAMSTEC)

Keywords:Pliocene, Climate modelling, Paleoceanography

These past few years has seen much interest in the modelling of the warm climate of the Mid to Late Pliocene, approximately 3 million years ago. This period represents the most recent time in the earth’s history when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were comparable to those of today. In this sense, it has drawn much attention because of possible parallels with near future climate, helped by the availability of proxy datasets from the ocean and other sources. Recent interest has been further fuelled by The Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project (PlioMIP) which has brought together the paleodata analysis group, PRISM, and various international climate modelling groups to expand the scientific community’s knowledge of this period. Now into its second phase, PlioMIP has set out specific protocols for climate model experimental design, utilizing the latest datasets related to Pliocene vegetation, soils, ice distribution and ocean bathymetry, while concentrating on a time-slice to limit temporal uncertainty
We ran several Pliocene climate modelling experiments using the atmosphere-ocean coupled model, MIROC4m. These include experiments using the boundary conditions specified in the first phase of PlioMIP in addition to one which has incorporated most of the latest datasets from the second phase. Zonal mean surface air temperatures increase by about 10 deg C at high latitudes, accompanied by a decrease in the equator-to-pole temperature gradient. As with many other climate models, the polar amplification appears smaller than that suggested by proxy data in PlioMIP. Initial results from experiments using the latest boundary conditions, in particular a closed Bering Strait, suggest that this amplification is further weakened.