Making sense of palaeoclimate sensitivity

Citation:

PALAEOSENS Project-Members, , Rohling, E. J. , Sluijs, A. , Dijkstra, H. A. , Köhler, P. , van de Wal, R. S. W. , von der Heydt, A. S. , Beerling, D. J. , Berger, A. , Bijl, P. K. , Crucifix, M. , DeConto, R. , Drijfhout, S. S. , Fedorov, A. , Foster, G. L. , Ganopolski, A. , Hansen, J. , Hönisch, B. , Hooghiemstra, H. , Huber, M. , Huybers, P. , Knutti, R. , Lea, D. W. , Lourens, L. J. , Lunt, D. , Masson-Demotte, V. , Medina-Elizalde, M. , Otto-Bliesner, B. , Pagani, M. , Pälike, H. , Renssen, H. , Royer, D. L. , Siddall, M. , Valdes, P. , Zachos, J. C. and Zeebe, R. E. (2012): Making sense of palaeoclimate sensitivity , Nature, 491 (7426), pp. 683-691 . doi: 10.1038/nature11574

Cite this page as:

hdl:10013/epic.40365

DOI:

10.1038/nature11574

Official URL:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature11574

Contact Email:

Peter.Koehler@awi.de

Many palaeoclimate studies have quantified pre-anthropogenic climate change to calculate climate sensitivity (equilibrium temperature change in response to radiative forcing change), but a lack of consistent methodologies produces a wide range of estimates and hinders comparability of results. Here we present a stricter approach, to improve intercomparison of palaeoclimate sensitivity estimates in a manner compatible with equilibrium projections for future climate change. Over the past 65 million years, this reveals a climate sensitivity (in K W−1 m2) of 0.3–1.9 or 0.6–1.3 at 95% or 68% probability, respectively. The latter implies a warming of 2.2–4.8 K per doubling of atmospheric CO2, which agrees with IPCC estimates.

Item Type:

Article

Authors:

PALAEOSENS Project-Members, ; Rohling, E. J. ; Sluijs, A. ; Dijkstra, H. A. ; Köhler, P. ; van de Wal, R. S. W. ; von der Heydt, A. S. ; Beerling, D. J. ; Berger, A. ; Bijl, P. K. ; Crucifix, M. ; DeConto, R. ; Drijfhout, S. S. ; Fedorov, A. ; Foster, G. L. ; Ganopolski, A. ; Hansen, J. ; Hönisch, B. ; Hooghiemstra, H. ; Huber, M. ; Huybers, P. ; Knutti, R. ; Lea, D. W. ; Lourens, L. J. ; Lunt, D. ; Masson-Demotte, V. ; Medina-Elizalde, M. ; Otto-Bliesner, B. ; Pagani, M. ; Pälike, H. ; Renssen, H. ; Royer, D. L. ; Siddall, M. ; Valdes, P. ; Zachos, J. C. ; Zeebe, R. E.

Divisions:

AWI Organizations > Geosciences > Glaciology

Programs:

Helmholtz Research Programs > PACES I (2009-2013) > TOPIC 3: Lessons from the Past > WP 3.1: Past Polar Climate and inter-hemispheric Coupling
Helmholtz Research Programs > PACES I (2009-2013) > TOPIC 4: Synthesis: The Earth System from a Polar Perspective > WP 4.2: The Earth System on Long Time Scales

Eprint ID:

31640