CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Climate reconstruction

Image of the week – Learning from our past!

September 1, 2017
Image of the week – Learning from our past!
Figure 1: Peak global mean temperature, atmospheric CO2, maximum global mean sea level (GMSL) and source(s) of meltwater over the past 3 million years. The light blue area on each bar indicates the uncertainty associated with the maximum global mean sea level , and the pie charts denote the fraction (not location) of ice retreat in Greenland and Antarctica [Credit: Dutton et al. (2015)].

Understanding the climate evolution of our planet is not an easy task, but it is essential to understand the past if we are to predict the future! Historic climate cycles provide us with a glimpse into a period of time when the Earth was warmer than it was today. Our image of the week looks at these warmer periods of time to see what they can tell us about the future! For example, during the Plioc ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – The Sound of an Ice Age

December 30, 2016
Image of the Week – The Sound of an Ice Age
The blue curves show the δOxygen-18 values for NorthGRIP in Greenland (top) and WAIS in Antarctica (bottom) for the last 20,000 years. The black dots are 1,000 years values, and the far left hand side of the curves are present day values.

New Year’s Eve is just around the corner and the last “image of the week” of 2016 will get you in the mood for a party. If your celebration needs a soundtrack with a suitably geeky touch then look no further. Here is the music for climate enthusiasts: The sound of the past 60,000 years of climate. Scientist Aslak Grinsted (Centre for Ice and Climate, University of Copenhagen, Denmark) has transfor ...[Read More]