Accessibility navigation


Sea ice-free Arctic during the last interglacial supports fast future loss

Guarino, M.-V., Sime, L. C., Schroeder, D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2351-4306, Malmierca-Vallet, I., Rosenblum, E., Ringer, M., Ridley, J., Feltham, D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2289-014X, Bitz, C., Steig, E. J., Wolff, E., Stroeve, J. and Sellar, A. (2020) Sea ice-free Arctic during the last interglacial supports fast future loss. Nature Climate Change, 10. pp. 928-932. ISSN 1758-678X

[img]
Preview
Text - Accepted Version
· Please see our End User Agreement before downloading.

7MB

It is advisable to refer to the publisher's version if you intend to cite from this work. See Guidance on citing.

To link to this item DOI: 10.1038/s41558-020-0865-2

Abstract/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.

Item Type:Article
Refereed:Yes
Divisions:Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
ID Code:91701
Publisher:Nature Publishing Group

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

University Staff: Request a correction | Centaur Editors: Update this record

Page navigation