Skip to main content
Log in

Three basic problems of paleoclimatic modeling: a personal perspective and review

  • Published:
Climate Dynamics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The development of a theory of the evolution of the climate of the earth over millions of years can be subdivided into three fundamental, nested, problems: Firstly, to establish by equilibrium climate models (e.g., general circulation models) the diagnostic relations, valid at any time, between the fast-response climate variables (i.e., the “weather statistics”) and both the prescribed external radiative forcing and the prescribed distribution of the slow-response variables (e.g., the ice sheets and shelves, the deep ocean state, and the atmospheric CO2 concentration). Secondly, to construct, by an essentially inductive process, a model of the time-dependent evolution of the slow-response climatic variables over time scales longer than the damping times of these variables but shorter than the time scale of ultra-slow tectonic and astronomical changes in the boundary conditions (e.g., altered geography and elevation of the continents, slow outgassing and weathering and and solar radiative output). Thirdly, to determine the nature of these ultra-slow processes and their effects on the evolution of the equilibrium state of the climatic system about which the previously mentioned time-dependent variations occur. In this review we discuss the basis for this resolution, and give a broad overview of the contributions that have been made thus far in each area, emphasizing the work of the Yale climate group.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Andrews JT, Mahaffy MAW (1976) Rate of growth of the Laurentide ice sheet based on a three dimensional numerical ice flow model. Quat Res 6:167–183

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnola JM, Raynaud D, Korotkevich YS, Lorius C (1987) Vostok ice core provides 160 000-year record of atmospheric CO2. Nature 329:408–414

    Google Scholar 

  • Barron EJ, Washington WM (1984) The role of geographic variables in explaining paleoclimates: results from cretaceous climate model sensitivity studies. J Geophys Res 89:1267–1279

    Google Scholar 

  • Barron EJ, Thompson SL, Schneider SH (1981) An ice-free cretaceous? Results from climate model simulations. Science 212:501–508

    Google Scholar 

  • Benzi R, Parisi G, Sutera A, Vulpiani A (1982) Stochastic resonance in climatic change. Tellus 34:10–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Benzi R, Parisi G, Sutera A, Vulpiani A (1983) The theory of stochastic resonance in climatic change. SIAM J Appl Math 43:565–578

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger A (1978) A simple algorithm to compute long-term variations of daily or monthly insolation. Inst Astron Geophys G Lemaitre, Contrib 18

  • Berger AH, Gallee H, Fichefet T, Marsiat I, Tricot C (1988) Testing the astronomical theory with a physical coupled climateice-sheets model. Sci Rpt 1988/3. Inst d'Astron et de Geophys Lemaitre, G. Univ Catholique, Louvain — La-Neuve, Belgium

    Google Scholar 

  • Berner RA, Lasaga AC, Garrels RM (1983) The carbonate-silicate geochemical cycle and its effect on atmospheric carbon dioxide over the past 100 million years. Am J Sci 283:641–683

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Birchfield GE (1989) A coupled ocean-atmosphere climate model: temperature versus salinity effects on the thermohaline circulation. Clim Dyn 4:57–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Birchfield GE, Grumbine RW (1985) “Slow” physics of large continental ice sheets and underlying bedrock and its relation to the Pleistocene ice ages. J Geophys Res90:11294–11302

    Google Scholar 

  • Birchfield GE, Weertman J (1978) A note on the spectral response of a model continental ice sheet. J Geophys Res 83:4123–4125

    Google Scholar 

  • Birchfield GE, Weertman J, Lunde AT (1981) A paleoclimate model of northern hemisphere ice sheets. Quatern Res 15:126–142

    Google Scholar 

  • Brass GW, Southam JR, Peterson WH (1982) Warm saline bottom water in the ancient ocean. Nature 296:620–623

    Google Scholar 

  • Broccoli AJ, Manabe S (1987) The influence of continental ice atmospheric CO2, and land albedo on the climate of the last glacial maximum. Clim Dyn 1:87–99

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryan F (1986) High-latitude salinity effects and interhemispheric thermohaline circulations. Nature 323:301–304

    Google Scholar 

  • Budd WF, Rayner P (1990) Modelling global ice and climate changes through the ice ages. Ann Glacial 14:23–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Budd WF, Smith IN (1981) The growth and retreat of ice sheets in response to orbital radiation changes. Sea Level, Ice, and Climatic Change IAHS Publ No 131:369–409

  • Budyko MI (1982) The earth's climate: past and future. Academic Pr, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Callendar GS (1938) The artificial production of carbon dioxide and its influence on temperature. Quart J R MetSoc 64:223–237

    Google Scholar 

  • Chalikov DV, Verbitsky MY (1984) A new Earth's climate model. Nature 308:609–612

    Google Scholar 

  • Chalikov DV, Verbitsky MY (1990) Modelling the Pleistocene ice ages. Advances in Geophysics 32:75–130

    Google Scholar 

  • Chamberlin TC (1906) On a possible reversal of deep sea circulation and its influence on geologic climates. J Geology 14:363–373

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark JA, Farrell WE, Peltier WR (1978) Global changes in post glacial sea level: a numerical calculation. Quatern Res 9:265–287

    Google Scholar 

  • Cook KH, Held IM (1988) Stationary waves of the ice age climate. J Climate 1:807–819

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowley TJ, Hyde WT, Short DA (1989) Seasonal cycle variations on the supercontinent of Pangea. Geology 17:457–460

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowley TJ, Mengel JG, Short DA (1987) Gondwanaland's seasonal cycle. Nature 329:803–807

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowley TJ, Short DA, Mengel JG, North GR (1986) Role of seasonality in the evolution of climate during the last 100 million years. Science 231:579–584

    Google Scholar 

  • Delmas RJ, Ascencio J-M, Legrand M (1980) Polar ice evidence that atmospheric CO2 20000 yr BP was 50% of present. Nature 284:155–157

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickinson RE (1985) Climate sensitivity. Advances in Geophysics 28A:99–129

    Google Scholar 

  • Donn WL, Shaw DM (1977) Model of climate evolution based on continental drift and polar wandering. Geol Soc Am Bull 88:390–396

    Google Scholar 

  • Ericksson E (1968) Air-ocean-icecap interactions in relation to climatic fluctuations and glaciation cycles. Meteor Monogr 8: No. 30, 68–92

    Google Scholar 

  • Fong P (1982) Latent heat of melting and its importance for glaciation cycles. Climatic Change 4:199–206

    Google Scholar 

  • Frakes LA (1979) Climates throughout geologic time, Elsevier, Amsterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Gates WL (1976) The numerical simulation of ice-age climate with a global general circulation model. J Atmos Sci 33:1844–1873

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ghil M (1984) Climate sensitivity, energy balance models and oscillatory climate models. J Geophys Res 89:1280–1284

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghil M, Le Treut H (1981) A climate model with cryodynamics and geodynamics. J Geophys Res 86:5262–5270

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghil M, Mullhaupt A, Pestiaux P (1987) Deep water formation and Quaternary glaciations. Clim Dyn 2:1–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilliland RL (1989) Solar evolution. Global and Planetary Change 1:35–55

    Google Scholar 

  • Glancy TJ, Barron EJ, Arthur MA (1986) An initial study of the sensitivity of modeled Cretaceous climate to cyclical insolation forcing. Paleoceanography 1:523–537

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey LDD (1989) An energy balance climate model study of radiative forcing and temperature response at 18 ka. J Geophys Res D10:12813–12884

    Google Scholar 

  • Hasselmann K (1976) Stochastic climate models, part 1. theory. Tellus 28:473–485

    Google Scholar 

  • Herterich K, Esch MB (1990) An attempt to simulate the global ice-volume record during the last ice-age cycle with a 2D atmosphere-ice sheet-continent model. Clim Dyn (accepted)

  • Huybrechts P (1990) The Antarctic ice sheet during the last glacial-interglacial cycle: a three-dimensional experiment. Ann Glacial 14:115–119

    Google Scholar 

  • Hyde WT, Peltier WR (1985) Sensitivity experiments with a model of the ice age cycle: The response to harmonic forcing. J Atmos Sci 42:2170–2188

    Google Scholar 

  • Imbrie J, Imbrie JZ (1980) Modeling the climatic response to orbital variations. Science 207:943–953

    Google Scholar 

  • Källen E, Crafoord C, Ghil M (1979) Free oscillations in a climate model with ice-sheet dynamics. J Atmos Sci 36:2292–2303

    Google Scholar 

  • Källen E, Huang XY (1987) A simple model for large-scale thermohaline convection. Dyn Atmos Oceans 11:153–173

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn WR, Walker JCG, Marshall HG (1989) The effect on earth's surface temperature from variations in rotation rate continent formation, solar luminosity, and carbon dioxide. J Geophys Res 94:11129–11136

    Google Scholar 

  • Kutzbach JE (1976) The nature of climate and climatic variations. Quat Res 6:471–480

    Google Scholar 

  • Kutzbach JE (1981) Monsoon climate of the early holocene: Climate experiment with the earth's orbital parameter for 9000 years ago. Science 214:59–61

    Google Scholar 

  • Kutzbach JE, Gallimore RG (1989) Pangean climates: megamonsoons of the megacontinent. J Geophys Res 94:3341–3357

    Google Scholar 

  • Kutzbach JE, Guetter PJ (1986) The influence of changing orbital parameters and surface boundary conditions on climate simulations for the past 18 000 years. J Geophys Res 33:1726–1759

    Google Scholar 

  • Kutzbach JE, Otto-Bliesner BL (1982) The sensitivity of the African-Asian monsoonal climate to orbitae parameter changes for 9000 years B.P. in a low-resolution general circulation model. J Atmos Sci 39:1177–1188

    Google Scholar 

  • Le Treut H, Ghil M (1983) Orbital forcing, climatic interactions, and glaciation cycles. J Geophys Res 88:5167–5190

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemke P (1977) Stochastic climate models, part 3. Application to zonally averaged energy models. Tellus 29:385–392

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindstrom DR (1990) The Eurasian ice sheet formation and collapse resulting from natural atmospheric CO2 concentration variations. Paleoceanography 5:207–227

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindzen RS (1986) A simple model for 100 k-year oscillations in glaciation. J Atmos Sci 43:986–996

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorenz EN (1975) Climatic predictability. The physical basis of climate and climate modelling, GARP Publ No. 16, ICSU/WMO, 132–136

  • Maasch KA (1988) Statistical detection of the mid-Pleistocene transition. Clim Dyn 2:133–143

    Google Scholar 

  • Maasch KA, Saltzman B (1990) A low-order dynamical model of global climatic variability over the full Pleistocene. J Geophys Res 95:1955–1963

    Google Scholar 

  • Manabe S, Broccoli AJ (1985) The influence of continental ice sheets on the climate of an ice age. J Geophys Res 90:2167–2190

    Google Scholar 

  • Manabe S, Bryan K Jr (1985) CO2-induced change in a coupled ocean-atmosphere model and its paleoclimatic implications. J Geophys Res 90:11689–11707

    Google Scholar 

  • Manabe S, Hahn DG (1977) Simulation of the tropical climate of an ice age. J Geophys Res 82:3889–3911

    Google Scholar 

  • Manabe S, Stouffer RJ (1988) Two stable equilibria of a coupled ocean-atmosphere model. J Climate 1:841–866

    Google Scholar 

  • Marotzke J, Welander P, Willebrand J (1988) Instability and multiple steady states in a meridional-plane model of the thermohaline circulation. Tellus 40A:162–172

    Google Scholar 

  • Matteucci G (1989) Orbital forcing in a stochastic resonance model of the Late-Pleistocene climatic variations. Clim Dyn 3:179–190

    Google Scholar 

  • Milankovitch M (1930) Mathematische Klimalehre. In Koppen-Geiger, Handbuch der Klimatologie, Gebrüder Barntrager, Berlin 1, A

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell JM (1976) An overview of climatic variability and its causal mechanisms. Quat Res 6:481–493

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell JFB (1989) The “greenhouse” effect and climate change. Rev of Geophys 27:115–139

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell JFB, Grahame NS, Needham KJ (1988) Climate simulations for 9000 years before present: seasonal variations and effect of the Laurentide ice sheet. J Geophys Res 93: D7, 8283–8303

    Google Scholar 

  • Neftel A, Moor E, Oeschger H, Stauffer B (1985) Evidence from polar ice cores for the increase in atmospheric CO2 in the past two centuries. Nature 315:45–47

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nicolis C (1982) Stochastic aspects of climatic transitions-response to a periodic forcing. Tellus 34:1–9

    Google Scholar 

  • North GR, Mengel JG, Short DA (1983) Simple energy balance model resolving the seasons and the continents: application to the astronomical theory of the ice ages. J Geophys Res 88:6576–6586

    Google Scholar 

  • Oerlemans J (1980) Model experiments on the 100000-yr glacial cycle. Nature 287:430–432

    Google Scholar 

  • Oerlemans J, van der Veen CJ (1984) Ice sheets and climate, D Reidel, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • Oglesby RJ (1989) A GCM study of Antarctic glaciation. Climate Dynamics 3:135–156

    Google Scholar 

  • Oglesby RJ (1990) Sensitivity of glaciation to initial snowcover, CO2, snow albedo, and ocean roughness in the NCAR CCM. Clim Dyn 4:219–235

    Google Scholar 

  • Oglesby R, Park J (1989) The effect of precessional insolation changes on Cretaceous climate and cyclic sedimentation. J Geophys Res 94:14793–14816

    Google Scholar 

  • Oglesby RJ, Saltzman B (1990a) Sensitivity of the equilibrium mean surface temperature of a GCM to systematic changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Geophys Res Lett 17:1089–1092

    Google Scholar 

  • Oglesby RJ, Saltzman B (1990b) Extending the EBM: the effect of deep ocean temperature on climate with applications to the Cretaceous. Paleog, Paleocl, Paleoec (Global and Planetary Change) 82:237–259

    Google Scholar 

  • Oglesby RJ, Maasch KA, Saltzman B (1989) Glacial meltwater cooling of the Gulf of Mexico: GCM implications for Holocene and present-day climates. Clim Dyn 3:115–133

    Google Scholar 

  • Paterson WSB (1980) Ice sheets and ice shelves. In: Colbeck SC (ed) Dynamics of Snow and Ice Masses. Academic, Press, London 3–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Peltier WR (1982) Dynamics of the ice age Earth. Advances in Geophysics 24:1–146

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollard D (1982) A simple ice sheet model yields realistic 100 kyr glacial cycles. Nature 296:334–338

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollard D (1983a) Ice-age simulations with a calving ice-sheet model. Quat Res 20:30–48

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollard D (1983b) A coupled climate-ice sheet model applied to the Quaternary ice ages. J Geophys Res 88:7705–7718

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollard D, Ingersoll AP, Lockwood JG (1980) Response of a zonal climate-ice sheet model to the orbital perturbations during the Quaternary ice ages. Tellus 32:301–319

    Google Scholar 

  • Prell WL, Kutzbach JE (1987) Variability of the monsoon over the past 150000 years: comparison of observed and simulated paleoclimatic time series. J Geophys Res 92:8411–8425

    Google Scholar 

  • Prentice ML, Matthews RK (1988) Cenozoic ice-volume history: development of a composite oxygen isotope record. Geology 16:963–966

    Google Scholar 

  • Raymo ME, Ruddiman WF, Froelich PN (1988) Influence of late Cenozoic mountain building on ocean geochemical cycles. Geology 16:649–653

    Google Scholar 

  • Rind D (1986) The dynamics of warm and cold climates. J Atmos Sci 43:3–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Rind D (1987) Components of the ice age circulation. J Geophys Res 92:4241–4281

    Google Scholar 

  • Rind D, Peteet D (1985) Terrestrial conditions at the last glacial maximum and CLIMAD sea-surface temperature estimates: are they consistent? Quat Res 24:1–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Rind D, Peteet D, Kukla G (1989) Can Milankovitch orbital variations initiate the growth of ice sheets in a general circulation model? J Geophys Res 94:12 851–12 871

    Google Scholar 

  • Rind D, Peteet D, Broecker W, McIntyre A, Ruddiman W (1986) The impact of cold North Atlantic sea surface temperatures on climate: Implications for the Younger Dryas cooling (11–10 k) Clim Dyn 1:3–33

    Google Scholar 

  • Rooth C (1982) Hydrology and ocean circulation. Progr Oceanogr 11:131–149

    Google Scholar 

  • Royer JF, Deque M, Pestiaux P (1983) Orbital forcing of the inception of the Laurentide ice sheet. Nature 304:43–46

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltzman B (1978) A survey of statistical — dynamical models of the terrestrial climate. Advances in Geophysics 20:183–304

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltzman B (1982) Stochastically-driven climatic fluctuations in the sea-ice, ocean temperature, CO2 feedback system. Tellus 34:97–112

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltzman B (1983) Climatic systems analysis. Advances in Geophysics 25:173–233

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltzman B (1984) On the role of equilibrium atmospheric climate models in the theory of long period glacial variations. J Atmos Sci 41:2263–2266

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltzman B (1985) Paleoclimatic modeling. In: Hecht AD (ed) Paleoclimate analysis and modeling, J Wiley & Sons, New York, 341–396

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltzman B (1986) Climatic “equilibrium” for the Quaternary. J Atmos Sci 43:109–110

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltzman B (1987) Carbon dioxide and the δ18O record of late-Quaternary climatic change: a global model. Clim Dyn 1:77–85

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltzman B (1988) Modelling the slow climatic attractor. In: Schlesinger ME (ed) Physically-Based Modelling and Simulation of Climate and Climatic Change, Part II. Reidel, Dordrecht, 737–754

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltzman B, Hansen AR, Maasch KA (1984) The late Quaternary glaciations as the response of a three-component feedback system to Earth-orbital forcing. J Atmos Sci 41:3380–3389

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltzman B, Maasch KA (1988) Carbon cycle instability as a cause of the late Pleistocene ice age oscillations: modeling the asymmetric response. Global Biogeochem Cycles 2:177–185

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltzman B, Maasch KA (1990a) A first-order global model of late Cenozoic climatic change. Trans R Soc Edinburgh. Earth Sciences 81:(in press)

  • Saltzman B, Maasch KA (1990b) A first-order global model of late Cenozoic climatic change II. A simplification of CO2 dynamics. Clim Dyn (accepted for publication)

  • Saltzman B, Moritz RE (1980) A time-dependent climatic feedback system involving sea-ice extent, ocean temperature, and CO2. Tellus 32:93–118

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltzman B, Sutera A, Evenson A (1981) Structural stochastic stability of a simple auto-oscillatory climatic feedback system. J Atmos Sci 38:494–503

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltzman B, Sutera A (1984) A model of the internal feedback system involved in late Quaternary climatic variations. J Atmos Sci 41:736–745

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltzman B, Sutera A (1987) The mid-Quaternary climatic transition as the free response of a three-variable dynamical model. J Atmos Sci 44:236–241

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltzman B, Sutera A, Hansen AR (1982) A possible marine mechanism for internally generated long-period climate cycles. J Atmos Sci 39:2634–2637

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltzman B, Vernekar AD (1975) A solution for the northern hemisphere climatic zonation during a glacial maximum. Quat Res 5:307–320

    Google Scholar 

  • Schlesinger ME (1984) Climate model simulations of CO2-induced climatic change. Advances in Geophysics 26:141–235

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneider SH, Peteet DM, North GR (1988) A climate model intercomparison for the Younger Dryas and its implications for paleoclimatic data collection. In: Berger WH, Labeyrie LD (eds) Abrupt Climatic Change, Reidel, Dordrecht, 399–417

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneider SH, Thompson SL (1979) Ice ages and orbital variations: some simple theory and modeling. Quat Res 12:188–203

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneider SH, Thompson SL, Barron EJ (1985) Mid-Cretaceous continental surface temperature: are high CO2 concentrations needed to simulate above freezing winter conditions? In: Sundquist ET, Broecker WS (eds) The carbon cycle and atmospheric CO2: natural variations Archean to present. AGU, Washington DC, pp 554–559

    Google Scholar 

  • Sergin VY (1979) Numerical modeling of the glaciers-ocean-atmosphere global system. J Geophys Res 84:3191–3204

    Google Scholar 

  • Sergin VY, Sergin SY (1976) In: Sergin SY (ed) The simulation of the “glaciers-ocean-atmosphere” planetary system. Far East Science Center, U.S.S.R. Acad. of Science, Vladivostok, 5–51 (in Russian)

    Google Scholar 

  • Shackleton NJ, Imbrie J (1990) The δ18O spectrum of oceanic deep water over a five-decade band. Climatic Change 16:217–230

    Google Scholar 

  • Shackleton NJ, Pisias NG (1985) Atmospheric carbon dioxide, orbital forcing, and climate. In: Sundquist ET, Broecker WS (eds) Geophys Monogr 32: A.G.U. 303–317

  • Sneider RK (1985) The origin of the 100000-year cycle in a simple ice age model. J Geophys Res 80:5661–5664

    Google Scholar 

  • Sowers T, Bender M, Raynaud D, Korotkevitch YS (1990) Ice core evidence for a time lag between changes in atmospheric CO2 and the penultimate deglaciation (abstract). EOS 71:538

    Google Scholar 

  • Stommel H (1961) Thermohaline convection with two stable regimes of flow. Tellus 13:224–228

    Google Scholar 

  • Suarez MJ, Held IM (1976) Modelling climatic response to orbital parameter variations. Nature 263:46–47

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutera A (1981) On stochastic perturbation and long-term climate behaviour. Quart J R Met Soc 107:137–153

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker JCG, Hays PB, Kasting JF (1981) A negative feedback mechanism for the long-term stabilization of Earth's surface temperature. J Geophys Res 86:9776–9782

    Google Scholar 

  • Watts RG, Hayder ME (1983) The origin of the 100-kiloyear ice sheet cycle in the Pleistocene. J Geophys Res 88:5163–5166

    Google Scholar 

  • Weertman J (1976) Milankovitch solar radiation variations and ice age ice sheet sizes. Nature 261:17–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Welander P (1985) Thermohaline effects in the ocean circulation and related simple models. In: Willebrand J, Anderson DLT (eds) Large-scale transport processes in oceans and amtosphere. Reidel, Dordrecht, 163–200

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams J, Barry RG, Washington WM (1974) Simulation of the atmospheric circulation using the NCAR global circulation model with ice age boundary conditions. J Appl Meteor 13:305–317

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Saltzman, B. Three basic problems of paleoclimatic modeling: a personal perspective and review. Climate Dynamics 5, 67–78 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00207422

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00207422

Keywords

Navigation