Early Eocene arctic climate sensitivity to pCO₂ and basin geography

We present results from new early Eocene (∼55-45 Ma) climate modeling experiments with the NCAR Community Climate System Model. These experiments test the sensitivity of climate to a large increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases, such as may have occurred at the Paleocene-Eocene (P-E) boundary (∼55.5 Ma), and also allow us to explore the role of Arctic basin configuration on climate. Experiments were run with pCO₂ at 560 and 2240 ppm, and a third experiment, at 2240 ppm, incorporates a passage to a neighboring ocean to explore the potential effect of the ocean on Arctic warming, were the Arctic not isolated. Quadrupling pCO₂ warms the Arctic by ∼8°C in the annual average, doubles atmospheric moisture content in this region and eliminates Arctic sea ice, consistent with proxy estimates of warming at the P-E boundary. Opening the Arctic Ocean warms mean annual sea surface temperature by an additional ∼4°C.

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An edited version of this paper was published by AGU. Copyright 2009 American Geophysical Union.


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Author Shellito, Cindy
Lamarque, Jean-François
Sloan, Lisa
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2009-05-08T00:00:00
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2023-08-18T18:43:45.763020
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:15283
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Shellito, Cindy, Lamarque, Jean-François, Sloan, Lisa. (2009). Early Eocene arctic climate sensitivity to pCO₂ and basin geography. UCAR/NCAR - Library. http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7tx3gd6. Accessed 20 January 2025.

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