Modeling the Middle Pliocene Climate

该奖项支持使用该时期的古气候数据对上新世中期气候进行模式模拟。 研究人员将使用上新世研究，解释和天气测绘（PRISM）项目的上新世陆地和海洋数据作为耦合海洋-大气环流模型（GCM）的输入。 这项研究的基本原理是，上新世中期是地球经历全球气温的时期，由于大气中温室气体浓度的增加，全球气温与最近对未来气候的预测相当。 具体来说，高纬度变暖（相对于现在）和减少赤道到两极的温度梯度占主导地位的上新世中期。更广泛的影响，这个拟议中的研究中心解决一个关键问题，温室气体（GHG）浓度和海洋温度。 科学界希望确定在追踪大气中温室气体浓度增加的热量输送或海洋环流方面是否存在任何海洋“意外”。 利用地球上更温暖时期的数据，其中地球物理边界条件与现代世界相似，这项拟议的研究可能有助于确定海洋的载热或循环特性的基本功能是否存在任何“惊喜”。 完成后，这项研究产生的数据将通过公开访问的数据库提供给更广泛的科学界。

This award support the model simulations of middle Pliocene climate using paleoclimatic data derived from the time period. The researcher will use Pliocene age terrestrial and marine data from the Pliocene Research, Interpretation, and Synoptic Mapping (PRISM) project as input to a coupled ocean-atmosphere General Circulation Model (GCM). The rationale for the research is that the middle Pliocene was a time when the Earth experienced global temperatures that are comparable to recent projections of future climate due to increases in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. Specifically, high latitude warming (relative to the present) and a reduced equator-to-pole temperature gradient dominated the middle Pliocene.The broader impacts of this proposed research center on addressing a critical question regarding greenhouse gases (GHG) concentrations and ocean temperatures. There is a desire on the part of the scientific community to determine if there are any oceanic 'surprises' in terms of heat transport or ocean circulation that track the increasing concentrations of GHG in the atmosphere. Using data from a period of greater warmth on Earth, in which geophysical boundary conditions are similar to the modern world, this proposed research may help identify if there are any 'surprises' in basic function of the heat carrying or circulatory properties of the ocean. When completed, the data generated by this research will be made available to the wider scientific community through publicly accessible databases.