Influence of Dust on the Initiation of Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth Events

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-44
Author(s):  
Yonggang Liu ◽  
Peng Liu ◽  
Dawei Li ◽  
Yiran Peng ◽  
Yongyun Hu
Keyword(s):  
General Circulation ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Dust Emission ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Ocean General Circulation Model ◽  
Cooling Effect ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Snowball Earth ◽  
Atmospheric Dust ◽  
Dust Loading

AbstractIt has been demonstrated previously that atmospheric dust loading during the Precambrian could have been an order of magnitude higher than in the present day and could have cooled the global climate by more than 10 °C. Here, using the fully coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model CESM1.2.2, we determine whether such dust loading could have facilitated the formation of Neoproterozoic snowball Earth events. Our results indicate global dust emission decreases as atmospheric CO2 concentration (pCO2) decreases due to increasing snow coverage, but atmospheric dust loading does not change or even increases due to decreasing precipitation and strengthening June-July-August (JJA) Hadley circulation. The latter lifts more dust particles to high altitude and thus increases the lifetime of these particles. As the climate becomes colder and the surface albedo higher, the cooling effect of dust becomes weaker; when the global mean surface temperature is approximately -13 °C, dust has negligible cooling effect. The threshold pCO2 at which Earth enters a snowball state is between 280 to 140 ppmv when there is no dust, and is similar when there is relatively light dust loading (~4.4 times present-day value). However, the threshold pCO2 decreases dramatically to between 70 to 35 ppmv when there is heavy dust loading (~33 times present-day value), due to the decrease in planetary albedo which increases the energy input into the climate system. Therefore, dust makes it more difficult for Earth to enter a snowball state.

scholarly journals Initiation of a Marinoan Snowball Earth in a state-of-the-art atmosphere-ocean general circulation model

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 249-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Voigt ◽  
D. S. Abbot ◽  
R. T. Pierrehumbert ◽  
J. Marotzke
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Bifurcation Point ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Ocean General Circulation Model ◽  
Snowball Earth ◽  
Surface Boundary ◽  
Surface Boundary Conditions ◽  
Global Mean

Abstract. We study the initiation of a Marinoan Snowball Earth (~635 million years before present) with the state-of-the-art atmosphere-ocean general circulation model ECHAM5/MPI-OM. This is the most sophisticated model ever applied to Snowball initiation. A comparison with a pre-industrial control climate shows that the change of surface boundary conditions from present-day to Marinoan, including a shift of continents to low latitudes, induces a global-mean cooling of 4.6 K. Two thirds of this cooling can be attributed to increased planetary albedo, the remaining one third to a weaker greenhouse effect. The Marinoan Snowball Earth bifurcation point for pre-industrial atmospheric carbon dioxide is between 95.5 and 96% of the present-day total solar irradiance (TSI), whereas a previous study with the same model found that it was between 91 and 94% for present-day surface boundary conditions. A Snowball Earth for TSI set to its Marinoan value (94% of the present-day TSI) is prevented by doubling carbon dioxide with respect to its pre-industrial level. A zero-dimensional energy balance model is used to predict the Snowball Earth bifurcation point from only the equilibrium global-mean ocean potential temperature for present-day TSI. We do not find stable states with sea-ice cover above 55%, and land conditions are such that glaciers could not grow with sea-ice cover of 55%. Therefore, none of our simulations qualifies as a "slushball" solution. While uncertainties in important processes and parameters such as clouds and sea-ice albedo suggest that the Snowball Earth bifurcation point differs between climate models, our results contradict previous findings that Snowball Earth initiation would require much stronger forcings.

scholarly journals Initiation of a Marinoan Snowball Earth in a state-of-the-art atmosphere-ocean general circulation model

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 1853-1894 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Voigt ◽  
D. S. Abbot ◽  
R. T. Pierrehumbert ◽  
J. Marotzke
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Bifurcation Point ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Ocean General Circulation Model ◽  
Snowball Earth ◽  
Surface Boundary ◽  
Surface Boundary Conditions ◽  
Ocean General Circulation ◽  
Global Mean

Abstract. We study the initiation of a Marinoan Snowball Earth (635 million years before present) with the most sophisticated atmosphere-ocean general circulation model ever used for this purpose, ECHAM5/MPI-OM. A comparison with a pre-industrial control climate shows that the change of surface boundary conditions from present-day to Marinoan, including a shift of continents to low latitudes, induces a global mean cooling of 4.6 K. Two thirds of this cooling can be attributed to increased planetary albedo, the remaining one third to a weaker greenhouse effect. The Marinoan Snowball Earth bifurcation point for pre-industrial atmospheric carbon dioxide is between 95.5 and 96% of the present-day total solar irradiance (TSI), whereas a previous study with the same model found that it was between 91 and 94% for present-day surface boundary conditions. A Snowball Earth for TSI set to its Marinoan value (94% of the present-day TSI) is prevented by quadrupling carbon dioxide with respect to its pre-industrial level. A zero-dimensional energy balance model is used to predict the Snowball Earth bifurcation point from only the equilibrium global mean ocean potential temperature for present-day TSI. We do not find stable states with sea-ice cover above 55%, and land conditions are such that glaciers could not grow with sea-ice cover of 55%. Therefore, none of our simulations qualifies as a "slushball" solution. In summary, our results contradict previous claims that Snowball Earth initiation would require "extreme" forcings.

scholarly journals Modelling the impacts of climate change on tropospheric ozone over three centuries

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 6805-6843 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. B. Hedegaard ◽  
A. Gross ◽  
J. H. Christensen ◽  
W. May ◽  
H. Skov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ozone Concentration ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Transport Model ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Ocean General Circulation Model ◽  
The Arctic

Abstract. The ozone chemistry over three centuries has been simulated based on climate prediction from a global climate model and constant anthropogenic emissions in order to separate out the effects on air pollution from climate change. Four decades in different centuries has been simulated using the chemistry version of the atmospheric long-range transport model; the Danish Eulerian Hemispheric Model (DEHM) forced with meteorology predicted by the ECHAM5/MPI-OM coupled Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Model. The largest changes in both meteorology, ozone and its precursors is found in the 21st century, however, also significant changes are found in the 22nd century. At surface level the ozone concentration is predicted to increase due to climate change in the areas where substantial amounts of ozone precursors are emitted. Elsewhere a significant decrease is predicted at the surface. In the free troposphere a general increase is found in the entire Northern Hemisphere except in the tropics, where the ozone concentration is decreasing. In the Arctic the ozone concentration will increase in the entire air column, which most likely is due to changes in transport. The change in temperature, humidity and the naturally emitted Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are governing with respect to changes in ozone both in the past, present and future century.

scholarly journals Sea-ice dynamics strongly promote Snowball Earth initiation and destabilize tropical sea-ice margins

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 2445-2475 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Voigt ◽  
D. S. Abbot
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Hadley Circulation ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Ocean General Circulation Model ◽  
Snowball Earth ◽  
Ice Dynamics ◽  
Sea Ice Dynamics

Abstract. The Snowball Earth bifurcation, or runaway ice-albedo feedback, is defined for particular boundary conditions by a critical CO2 and a critical sea-ice cover (SI), both of which are essential for evaluating hypotheses related to Neoproterozoic glaciations. Previous work has shown that the Snowball Earth bifurcation, denoted as (CO2, SI)*, differs greatly among climate models. Here, we revisit the initiation of a Snowball Earth in the atmosphere-ocean general circulation model ECHAM5/MPI-OM for Marinoan (~630 Ma) continents and solar insolation decreased to 94%. In its standard setup, ECHAM5/MPI-OM initiates a Snowball Earth much more easily than other climate models at (CO2, SI)* ≈ (500 ppm, 55%). Previous work has shown that the Snowball Earth bifurcation can be pushed equatorward if a low bare sea ice albedo is assumed because bare sea ice is exposed by net evaporation in the descent region of the Hadley circulation. Consistent with this, when we replace the model's standard bare sea-ice albedo of 0.75 by a much lower value of 0.45, we find (CO2, SI)* ≈ (204 ppm, 70%). When we additionally disable sea-ice dynamics, we find that the Snowball Earth bifurcation can be pushed even closer to the equator and occurs at a much lower CO2: (CO2, SI)* ≈ (2 ppm, 85%). Therefore, both lowering the bare sea-ice albedo and disabling sea-ice dynamics increase the critical sea-ice cover in ECHAM5/MPI-OM, but sea-ice dynamics have a much larger influence on the critical CO2. For disabled sea-ice dynamics, the state with 85% sea-ice cover is stabilized by the Jormungand mechanism and shares characteristics with the Jormungand climate states. However, there is no Jormungand bifurcation between this Jormungand-like state and states with mid-latitude sea-ice margins. Our results indicate that differences in sea-ice dynamics schemes can be as important as sea ice albedo for causing the spread in climate model's estimates of the location of the Snowball Earth bifurcation.

scholarly journals Mid-Pliocene global climate simulation with MRI-CGCM2.3: set-up and initial results of PlioMIP Experiments 1 and 2

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 793-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Kamae ◽  
H. Ueda
Keyword(s):  
General Circulation ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Ocean General Circulation Model ◽  
Climate Simulation ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
The North ◽  
Set Up

Abstract. The mid-Pliocene (3.3 to 3.0 million yr ago), a globally warm period before the Quaternary, is recently attracting attention as a new target for paleoclimate modelling and data-model synthesis. This paper reports set-ups and results of experiments proposed in Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project (PlioMIP) using a global climate model, MRI-CGCM2.3. We conducted pre-industrial and mid-Pliocene runs by using the coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model (AOGCM) and its atmospheric component (AGCM) for the PlioMIP Experiments 2 and 1, respectively. In addition, we conducted two types of integrations in AOGCM simulation, with and without flux adjustments on sea surface. General characteristics of differences in the simulated mid-Pliocene climate relative to the pre-industrial in the three integrations are compared. In addition, patterns of predicted mid-Pliocene biomes resulting from the three climate simulations are compared in this study. Generally, difference of simulated surface climate between AGCM and AOGCM is larger than that between the two AOGCM runs, with and without flux adjustments. The simulated climate shows different pattern between AGCM and AOGCM particularly over low latitude oceans, subtropical land regions and high latitude oceans. The AOGCM simulations do not reproduce wetter environment in the subtropics relative to the present-day, which is suggested by terrestrial proxy data. The differences between the two types of AOGCM runs are small over the land, but evident over the ocean particularly in the North Atlantic and polar regions.

scholarly journals Influence of Surface Topography on the Critical Carbon Dioxide Level Required for the Formation of a Modern Snowball Earth

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (20) ◽  
pp. 8463-8479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yonggang Liu ◽  
W. Richard Peltier ◽  
Jun Yang ◽  
Yongyun Hu
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
General Circulation Model ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Coupled Model ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Ocean General Circulation Model ◽  
Ocean Model ◽  
Snowball Earth ◽  
Ice Dynamics

The influence of continental topography on the initiation of a global glaciation (i.e., snowball Earth) is studied with both a fully coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation model (AOGCM), CCSM3, and an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM), CAM3 coupled to a slab ocean model. It is found that when the climate is very cold, snow cover over the central region of the Eurasian continent decreases when the atmospheric CO2 concentration ( pCO2) is reduced. In the coupled model, this constitutes a negative feedback due to the reduction of land surface albedo that counteracts the positive feedback due to sea ice expansion toward the equator. When the solar insolation is 94% of the present-day value, Earth enters a snowball state when pCO2 is ~35 ppmv. On the other hand, if the continents are assumed to be flat topographically (with the global mean elevation as in the more realistic present-day case), Earth enters a snowball state more easily at pCO2 = ~60 ppmv. Therefore, the presence of topography may increase the stability of Earth against descent into a snowball state. On the contrary, a snowball Earth is found to form much more easily when complex topography is present than when it is not in CAM3. This happens despite the fact that the mid- to high-latitude climate is much warmer (by ~10°C) when topography is present than when it is not. Analyses show that neglecting sea ice dynamics in this model prevents the warming anomaly in the mid- to high latitudes from being efficiently transmitted into the tropics.

scholarly journals Long-Term Evolution of the Caspian Sea Thermohaline Properties Reconstructed in an Eddy-Resolving OGCM

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gleb S. Dyakonov ◽  
Rashit A. Ibrayev
Keyword(s):  
Caspian Sea ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Decadal Variability ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Ocean General Circulation Model ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
The Caspian Sea ◽  
Error Accumulation

Abstract. The decadal variability of the Caspian Sea thermohaline properties is investigated by means of a high-resolution ocean general circulation model including sea ice thermodynamics and air-sea interaction, forced by prescribed realistic atmospheric conditions and riverine runoff. The model describes synoptic, seasonal and climatic variations of the sea thermohaline structure, water balance and level height. A reconstruction experiment was conducted for the period of 1961–2001, covering a major regime shift in the global climate of 1976–1978, which allows to investigate the Caspian Sea response to such significant episodes of climate change. The long-term trends in the sea circulation patterns are considered with an assessment of the influence of model error accumulation.

Ocean dynamics and climate during a Neoproterozoic snowball Earth and its aftermath as simulated in a coupled Earth system model

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lennart Ramme ◽  
Jochem Marotzke
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Ocean General Circulation Model ◽  
Cold Climate ◽  
Ocean Dynamics ◽  
Snowball Earth ◽  
Ice Melt ◽  
Ocean Surface Currents ◽  
Before And After

<p>The Neoproterozoic glaciations, referred to as snowball Earth periods, describe the most extreme transition from a very cold climate to a state of strong greenhouse effect. Atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> concentrations are rising during the snowball, due to the shutdown of oceanic and terrestrial carbon sinks, until a tipping point is reached and a rapid deglaciation sets in. Subsequently, a warm and completely ice-free climate under very high CO<sub>2</sub> concentrations develops. We show first results of simulations using a coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model covering the initiation, as well as the melting of the Marinoan snowball Earth (645 – 635 My ago) and the greenhouse climate in its aftermath. CO<sub>2</sub> concentrations are decreased to initiate a global glaciation and then increased again in order to melt the snowball Earth. As soon as a certain CO<sub>2</sub> threshold is reached, sea-ice melts rapidly, reaching a completely ice-free ocean after only one hundred years, in our model without land glaciers. The ocean becomes strongly stratified, because at the surface the freshwater from the sea-ice melt is warming up quickly, whereas the deeper ocean remains cold and salty. Ocean surface currents return to their pre-snowball behavior soon after the melt, but destratification is slow. The largest mixed layer depths of up to 500 m are reached in the mid latitudes of the winter hemisphere. We compare the climate before and after the snowball state and estimate the time needed for destratification.</p>

scholarly journals Mineral dust modelling with MADE3 in EMAC v2.54

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christof G. Beer ◽  
Johannes Hendricks ◽  
Mattia Righi ◽  
Bernd Heinold ◽  
Ina Tegen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Chemistry ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Mineral Dust ◽  
Dust Emission ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Model Resolution ◽  
Time Step ◽  
Dust Emissions

Abstract. Mineral dust particles play an important role in the climate system, by e.g. interacting with solar and terrestrial radiation or facilitating the formation of cloud droplets. Additionally, dust particles can act as very efficient ice nuclei in cirrus clouds. Many Global Chemistry Climate Models (GCCMs) use prescribed monthly mean mineral dust emissions representative of a specific year, based on a climatology. It was hypothesized that using dust emission climatologies may lead to misrepresentations of strong dust burst episodes, resulting in a negative bias of model dust concentrations compared to observations for these episodes. Here, we apply the aerosol microphysics submodel MADE3 (Modal Aerosol Dynamics model for Europe, adapted for global applications, third generation) as part of the ECHAM/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) general circulation model. We employ two different representations of mineral dust for our model simulations: i) a prescribed monthly-mean climatology of dust emissions representative of the year 2000; ii) an online dust parametrization which calculates wind-driven mineral dust emissions at every model time-step. We evaluate model results for these two dust representations by comparison with observations of aerosol optical depth from ground-based station data. The model results show a better agreement with the observations for strong dust burst events when using the online dust representation compared to the prescribed dust emissions setup. Furthermore, we analyse the effect of increasing the vertical and horizontal model resolution on mineral dust properties in our model. The model is evaluated against airborne in situ measurements performed during the SALTRACE mineral dust campaign (Saharan Aerosol Long-range Transport and Aerosol-Cloud Interaction Experiment, June/July 2013), i.e. observations of dust transported from the Sahara to the Caribbean. Results show that an increased horizontal and vertical model resolution is able to better represent the spatial distribution of airborne mineral dust, especially in the upper troposphere (above 400 hPa). Additionally, we analyse the effect of varying assumptions for the size distribution of emitted dust. The results of this study will help to identify the model setup best suited for future studies and to further improve the representation of mineral dust particles in EMAC-MADE3.

scholarly journals Mid-Pliocene global climate simulation with MRI-CGCM2.3: set-up and initial results of PlioMIP Experiments 1 and 2

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 383-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Kamae ◽  
H. Ueda
Keyword(s):  
General Circulation ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Ocean General Circulation Model ◽  
Climate Simulation ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
The North ◽  
Set Up

Abstract. The mid-Pliocene (3.3 to 3.0 million yr ago), a globally warm period before the Quaternary, is recently attracting attention as a new target for paleoclimate modelling and data-model synthesis. This paper reports set-ups and results of experiments proposed in Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project (PlioMIP) using with a global climate model, MRI-CGCM2.3. We conducted pre-industrial and mid-Pliocene runs by using of the coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model (AOGCM) and its atmospheric component (AGCM) for the PlioMIP Experiments 2 and 1, respectively. In addition, we conducted two types of integrations in AOGCM simulation, with and without flux adjustments on sea surface. General characteristics of differences in the simulated mid-Pliocene climate relative to the pre-industrial in the three integrations are compared in this study. Generally, difference of simulated surface climate between AGCM and AOGCM is larger than that between the two AOGCM runs, with and without flux adjustments. The simulated climate shows different pattern between AGCM and AOGCM particularly over low latitude oceans, subtropical land regions, and high latitude oceans. The AOGCM simulations do not reproduce wetter environment in the subtropics relative to the present-day, which is suggested by terrestrial proxy data. The differences between the two types of AOGCM runs are little over the land but evident over the ocean particularly in the North Atlantic and polar regions.

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