P2C2: Constraining Mechanisms of Tropical Climate Change Using Simulations and Proxies of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM)

P2C2：利用末次盛冰期 (LGM) 的模拟和代理来约束热带气候变化的机制

• 批准号: 1204011
• 负责人: Pedro Di Nezio
• 金额: $ 32.89万
• 依托单位: University of Hawaii
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1204011&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: P2C2; Constraining; Mechanisms; Tropical; Climate

The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), that period of time 21,000 years ago when the earth was glaciated and significantly colder than today, provides a unique set of boundary conditions to test climate general circulation models. This proposal aims to use simulations of the LGM to determine if the Walker Circulation, a coupled atmosphere-ocean system in the tropical Pacific, was stronger or weaker at that time. The project will attempt to address several important questions including: 1) How important are changes in the hydrological cycle, sea surface temperature gradients, and exposure of the Sunda shelf in affecting past intensity of the Walker Circulation? 2) What is the impact of model bias in the interaction among these mechanisms? 3) Can the different reconstructions of past climate in the tropical Pacific be reconciled and used to constrain each of these mechanisms? 4) How well do state-of-the-art climate models simulate the response of the Walker circulation to the exposure of the Sunda shelf due to lower sea level during the LGM.The models to be used in the study were also used to produce key paleoclimate simulations that will be discussed in the IPCC AR5 reports. Thus the evaluation of the performance of the different models will be very valuable to the climate research community.

最后一个冰川最大（LGM）是21，000年前的一段时间，当时地球被冰川化并明显冷，它提供了一组独特的边界条件来测试气候一般循环模型。该提案旨在使用LGM的模拟来确定当时的热带太平洋循环循环是耦合的大气 - 海洋系统，当时是更牢固还是更弱。 该项目将尝试解决几个重要问题，包括：1）水文周期的变化，海面温度梯度的变化以及Sunda架子在影响沃克循环强度时的暴露程度？ 2）模型偏差对这些机制之间相互作用有什么影响？ 3）是否可以调和热带太平洋中过去气候的不同重建并用来限制这些机制中的每一种？ 4）最先进的气候模型如何模拟Walker循环对LG的海平面较低的SUNDA货架的响应。研究中使用的模型也用于产生关键的古气候模拟，这些模拟将在IPCC AR5报告中进行讨论。 因此，对不同模型的性能的评估对于气候研究界将非常有价值。