The EPICA challenge - predicting greenhouse gas concentrations over 800,000 years: (2)

The European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) ice core from Dome C (Antarctica) has provided a new record of climate extending to 800,000 years. The imminent appearance of a dataset of greenhouse gas concentrations covering the same period has presented a unique opportunity for a test of our understanding, particularly of the climate/carbon system. The EPICA challenge (issued in Eos earlier this year) was that modeling groups and others should predict the dataset (of CO₂ and/or CH₄) before it appears, with the aim of promoting an open discussion of the underlying ideas and assumptions. People were invited to send their ideas to the Past Global Changes (PAGES) Project Office for collation. This poster, and the one that accompanies it, will summarise the responses received, and will try to highlight the underlying assumptions and uncertainties that have led to the suggested profiles. The main focus of this poster (CO₂ or CH₄) depends on the balance of responses received.