Timing of abrupt climate change: A precise clock
Abstract
Many paleoclimatic data reveal a ~1,500 year cyclicity of unknown origin. A crucial question is how stable and regular this cycle is. An analysis of the GISP2 ice core record from Greenland reveals that abrupt climate events appear to be paced by a 1,470-year cycle with a period that is probably stable to within a few percent; with 95% confidence the period is maintained to better than 12% over at least 23 cycles. This highly precise clock points to an origin outside the Earth system; oscillatory modes within the Earth system can be expected to be far more irregular in period.
- Publication:
-
Geophysical Research Letters
- Pub Date:
- May 2003
- DOI:
- 10.1029/2003GL017115
- Bibcode:
- 2003GeoRL..30.1510R
- Keywords:
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- Global Change: Climate dynamics (3309);
- Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Paleoclimatology;
- Global Change: Solar variability;
- Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Theoretical modeling;
- Global Change: Oceans (4203);
- Global Change: Climate dynamics (3309);
- Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Paleoclimatology;
- Global Change: Solar variability;
- Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Theoretical modeling;
- Global Change: Oceans (4203)