Possible methane-induced polar warming in the early Eocene
Abstract
Estimates of Eocene wetland areas are considered and it is suggested that the flux of methane may have been substantially greater during the Eocene than at present. Elevated methane concentrations would have enhanced early Eocene global warming and also might have prevented severe winter cooling of polar regions because of the potential of atmospheric methane to promote the formation of optically thick polar stratospheric ice clouds.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- May 1992
- DOI:
- 10.1038/357320a0
- Bibcode:
- 1992Natur.357..320S
- Keywords:
-
- Global Warming;
- Methane;
- Paleoclimatology;
- Polar Meteorology;
- Ice Clouds;
- Optical Thickness;
- Stratosphere;
- Winter;
- Geophysics