Mechanisms for millennial-scale global synchronization during the last glacial period

Type Article
Date 2005-10
Language English
Author(s) Timmermann A1, Krebs U2, Justino F3, Goosse H4, Ivanochko T5
Affiliation(s) 1 : Univ Hawaii, Sch Ocean & Earth Sci & Technol, Int Pacific Res Ctr, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA.
2 : IfM, GEOMAR, Leibniz Inst Meereswissensch, D-24148 Kiel, Germany.
3 : Univ Toronto, Dept Phys, Toronto, ON M5S 1A7, Canada.
4 : Univ Catholique Louvain, Inst Astron & Geophys, B-1348 Louvain, Belgium.
5 : Univ British Columbia, Dept Earth & Ocean Sci, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
Source Paleoceanography (0883-8305) (Amer Geophysical Union), 2005-10 , Vol. 20 , N. 4/PA4008 , P. 1-12
DOI 10.1029/2004PA001090
WOS© Times Cited 68
Abstract Global climate during the last glacial period was punctuated by abrupt warmings and occasional pulses of freshwater into the North Atlantic that disrupted deepwater production. These massive freshwater pulses known as Heinrich events arose, in part, from instabilities within the Laurentide ice sheet. Paleoevidence from the North Atlantic suggests that these events altered the production of deep water and changed downstream climate throughout the Northern Hemisphere. In the tropical western Pacific sea, surface temperatures and salinity varied together with ocean and climate changes at high latitudes. Here we present results from coupled modeling experiments that shed light on a possible dynamical link between the North Atlantic Ocean and the western tropical Pacific. This link involves a global oceanic standing wave pattern brought about by millennial-scale glacial density variations in the North Atlantic, atmospheric teleconnections triggered by meridional sea surface temperature gradients, and local air-sea interactions. Furthermore, our modeling results are compared with hydrological records from the Cariaco basin, the Indian Ocean, the Sulu Sea, and northern Australia.
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