Sensitivity of the European LGM climate to North Atlantic sea-surface temperature

Sophie Pinot (1) , Gilles Ramstein (1, 2) , Isabelle Marsiat (3) , Anne de Vernal (4) , Odile Peyron (5) , Jean-Claude Duplessy (1, 6) , Maria Weinelt (7)

1 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]
2 CLIM - Modélisation du climat
3 Department of Meteorology [Reading]
4 UQAM - Université du Québec à Montréal = University of Québec in Montréal
5 CEREGE - Centre européen de recherche et d'enseignement des géosciences de l'environnement
6 PALEOCEAN - Paléocéanographie
7 CAU - Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel = Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel = Université Christian-Albrechts de Kiel

Recent reconstructions of Sea-Surface Temperatures (SSTs) for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 21kyr BP) based on foraminifera and dinoflagel!ate proxies suggest that the north Atlantic may have been warmer than estimated by CLIMAP [1981]. To better understand the impact of such a warm north Atlantic on the global LGM climate, we used two different AGCMs to perform sensitivity studies. With the new, warmer SSTs, both models simulate a hydrological cycle and temperatures very different from those obtained with the CLIMAP boundary conditions. The most noticeable differences occur in winter over North America and Siberia whereas southern Europe is only weakly affected at all seasons. Whichever the conditions prescribed over the north Atlantic, both models underestimate the large cooling recorded by continental proxy data over the Mediterranean Basin.

Domaines: Océan, Atmosphère; Interfaces continentales, environnement

Sophie Pinot, Gilles Ramstein, Isabelle Marsiat, Anne de Vernal, Odile Peyron, et al.. Sensitivity of the European LGM climate to North Atlantic sea-surface temperature. Geophysical Research Letters, 1999, 26 (13), pp.1893-1896. ⟨10.1029/1999GL900361⟩. ⟨hal-02957898⟩