Pleistocene Interaction Between the Atmosphere and Ocean in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific

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The history of atmospheric circulation is an important element of paleoclimatology and the best reconstructions of atmospheric circulation come from analyzing the aeolian sediments found in deep sea cores. This proposal requests support to use a series of new piston cores to reconstruct the history of oceanic and atmospheric circulation in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The scientific goals of this study are to: 1) reconstruct the history of northern hemisphere trade winds for the Pleistocene; 2) determine the relationship between climate change and productivity in the equatorial Pacific; and 3) determine the nature of orbital forcing and climatic-oceanic response in this region. This research is important because it will provide documentation of the response of the atmosphere to changes in climatic forcing, documentation of the response of the oceans to changes in atmospheric circulation, and important data bases to test the sensitivity of atmospheric General Circulation Models.