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Mid-Holocene and last glacial maximum climate simulations with the IPSL model: part II: model-data comparisons

Climate Dynamics volume 40, pages 2469–2495 (2013)Cite this article

Abstract

The climates of the mid-Holocene (MH, 6,000 years ago) and the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 21,000 years ago) have been extensively documented and as such, have become targets for the evaluation of climate models for climate contexts very different from the present. In Part 1 of the present work, we have studied the MH and LGM simulations performed with the last two versions of the IPSL model: IPSL_CM4, run for the PMIP2/CMIP3 (Coupled Model Intercomparion Project) projects and IPSL_CM5A, run for the most recent PMIP3/CMIP5 projets. We have shown that not only are these models different in their simulations of the PI climate, but also in their simulations of the climatic anomalies for the MH and LGM. In the Part 2 of this paper, we first examine whether palaeo-data can help discriminate between the model performances. This is indeed the case for the African monsoon for the MH or for North America south of the Laurentide ice sheet, the South Atlantic or the southern Indian ocean for the LGM. For the LGM, off-line vegetation modelling appears to offer good opportunities to distinguish climate model results because glacial vegetation proves to be very sensitive to even small differences in LGM climate. For other cases such as the LGM North Atlantic or the LGM equatorial Pacific, the large uncertainty on the SST reconstructions, prevents model discrimination. We have examined the use of other proxy-data for model evaluation, which has become possible with the inclusion of the biogeochemistry morel PISCES in the IPSL_CM5A model. We show a broad agreement of the LGM–PI export production changes with reconstructions. These changes are related to the mixed layer depth in most regions and to sea-ice variations in the high latitudes. We have also modelled foraminifer abundances with the FORAMCLIM model and shown that the changes in foraminifer abundance in the equatorial Pacific are mainly forced by changes in SSTs, hence confirming the SST-foraminifer abundance relationship. Yet, this is not the case in all regions in the North Atlantic, where food availability can have a strong impact of foraminifer abundances. Further work will be needed to exhaustively examine the role of factors other than climate in piloting changes in palaeo-indicators.

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Acknowledgments

The work presented in this paper has largely benefited from the work of our colleagues of the IPSL Climate Modelling Centre. The research leading to these results was supported by CNRS, the INSU-LEFE French Program under the MissTerre project, the French programs ANR05-BLAN0275-01 “FORCLIM” and ANR-10-PDOC-005-01 “Ecogely”. It also received support from the COMBINE EU project (ECIP, Grant Agreement number 226520). This work also benefited of the HPC resources of CCRT and IDRIS made available by GENCI (Grand Equipement National de Calcul Intensif), CEA (Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives) and CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). We also would like to thank the anonymous referees for their constructive and helpful remarks on this long manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LSCE/IPSL, UMR CEA-CNRS-UVSQ 8212, CE Saclay, L’Orme des Merisiers, Bâtiment 701, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France

    Masa Kageyama, Pascale Braconnot, Laurent Bopp, Véronique Mariotti, Marie-Noëlle Woillez, Arnaud Caubel & Olivier Marti

  2. Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace, Case 101, UPMC, 4 place Jussieu, 75252, Paris cedex 5, France

    Marie-Alice Foujols

  3. LOCEAN/IPSL, Boîte 100-4, place Jussieu, 75252, PARIS Cedex 05, France

    Tilla Roy, Eric Guilyardi, Myriam Khodri & James Lloyd

  4. Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris 6), Observatoire Océanographique de Villefranche, BP 28, 06234, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France

    Fabien Lombard

  5. National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS), University of Reading, Reading, UK

    Eric Guilyardi

Authors
  1. Masa Kageyama
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  2. Pascale Braconnot
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  3. Laurent Bopp
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  4. Véronique Mariotti
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  6. Marie-Noëlle Woillez
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  7. Arnaud Caubel
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  8. Marie-Alice Foujols
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  9. Eric Guilyardi
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  10. Myriam Khodri
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  11. James Lloyd
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  12. Fabien Lombard
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  13. Olivier Marti
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Correspondence to Masa Kageyama.

Additional information

This paper is a contribution to the special issue on the IPSL and CNRM global climate and Earth System Models, both developed in France and contributing to the 5th Coupled Model Intercomparison Project.

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Kageyama, M., Braconnot, P., Bopp, L. et al. Mid-Holocene and last glacial maximum climate simulations with the IPSL model: part II: model-data comparisons. Clim Dyn 40, 2469–2495 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-012-1499-5

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