Abrupt changes in ice core samples and other records indicate dramatic changes in climate occurred at certain points in the past.
Abrupt changes in ice core samples and other records indicate dramatic changes in climate occurred at certain points in the past.
In Chaos, by AIP Publishing, climate scientists identify abrupt transitions in climate records that may have been caused by the climate system crossing a tipping point. This happens when self-reinforcing feedbacks in a system push it away from a stable state, leading to dramatic change.
Identifying these events in the Earth’s past is critical to understanding the tipping points likely to be encountered this century as a warming climate destabilizes the Earth’s physical systems and ecosystems.
The researchers from CNRS (France), UCLA, and Columbia University devised a statistical method to determine whether transitions seen in climate records such as ice cores are simply noise or evidence of a more significant change. This has typically been done by visual inspection, a process that is time-consuming and subjective.
Read more at American Institute of Physics
Image: North Greenland Ice Core Project record showing the end of the last ice age. Vertical lines mark the detected abrupt transitions (red for warming, blue for cooling). Gray shading represents warm periods. (CREDIT: Witold Bagniewski)
