GFI/BCCR Seminar | Eystein Jansen: Abrupt climate change of the last ice age – are they relevant for the future?
Hovedinnhold
Abrupt climate change of the last ice age – are they relevant for the future?
Eystein Jansen (GEO-UiB/BCCR, Norce Climate)
Abstract
Through the ice2ice project we investigate the architecture of past abrupt climate change as exemplified by Dansgaard Oescher events with emphasis on how the changes develop and are recorded in marine and ice core records. Detailed records of ocean, sea ice and atmospheric change are constructed and linked with unprecedented chronological accuracy. This enables us to clarify the role of the mechanisms involved, and to identify the sequence and phasing of changes that evolved through the abrupt events. The pivotal role of abrupt sea ice change in determining the abruptness of the events is underscored in the results. In parallell with the emprical evidence, a concerted modeling effort is undertaken, defining the sensitivity of the high-latitude ocean to change rapidly and to become unstable, and to test the impact of the abrupt changes to the mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet. I will compare the status in the period 40-30.000 years ago to the present and future Arctic, investigating the risks of future abrupt changes in the Arctic sea ice cover and its linkages with Greenland ice sheet.
Short biography
Professor of paleoclimatology at UiB working on the dynamics and causes of climate change in the past with emphasis on ocean circulation, glaciers and ice ages. PhD from UiB. Co-PI of the ERC synergy project ice2ice. Former director of BCCR and coordinating Lead Author in IPCC AR4 and Lead author in IPCC AR5, both for the paleoclimate chapters.
