Evolution of Atmospheric Circulation Patterns over Continental Interior Asia during the Past 1.4 Ma from Millennial-Scale Carbonate-Based Proxy Records from Lake Hovsgol, Mongolia

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This award supports the development of millennial scale climate records from Lake Hovsgol in Northwest Mongolia. The Lake is located along the present summer pathway of the subpolar jet stream over interior Asia that controls the westerly transport of moisture into the region. The goals of the research are to advance the understanding of large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns in the Northern Hemisphere and document changes in meridional heat gradient during interglacials. Specifically, the researchers will examine a 1.4 million year lacustrine sediment core recovered from the Lake and covering the Mid-Pleistocene Transition. The importance of this Transition is the apparent change in orbital variability from a system dominated by obliquity (40,000-year orbital cycles) to one dominated by eccentricity (100,000-year orbital cycles). This highly interdisciplinary and international research project will help support a Master's level graduate student and support international partnerships among the University of South Carolina, the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, and several research institutions and universities in Japan and South Korea.