Modeling past atmospheric CO2: Results of a challenge

  1. Eric Wolff1
  2. Christoph Kull2
  3. Jerome Chappellaz3
  4. Hubertus Fischer4
  5. Heinz Miller4
  6. Thomas F. Stocker5
  7. Andrew J. Watson6
  8. Benjamin Flower7
  9. Fortunat Joos5
  10. Peter Köhler4
  11. Katsumi Matsumoto8
  12. Eric Monnin5
  13. Manfred Mudelsee9
  14. Didier Paillard10
  15. Nick Shackleton11

Article first published online: 3 JUN 2011

DOI: 10.1029/2005EO380003

Issue

Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union

Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union

Volume 86, Issue 38, pages 341–345, 20 September 2005

Additional Information

How to Cite

Wolff, E., et al. (2005), Modeling past atmospheric CO2: Results of a challenge, Eos Trans. AGU, 86(38), 341–345, doi:10.1029/2005EO380003.

Author Information

  1. 1

    British Antarctic Survey Cambridge, U.K.

  2. 2

    Past Global Changes (PAGES) International Project Office, Bern, Switzerland

  3. 3

    Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Geophysique de l'Environnement, Grenoble, France

  4. 4

    Alfred Wegener Institute, Bremerhaven, Germany

  5. 5

    University of Bern, Switzerland

  6. 6

    University of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K. EPICA Challenge Entrants

  7. 7

    University of South Florida, Tampa

  8. 8

    University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

  9. 9

    University of Leipzig, Germany

  10. 10

    Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et l'Environnement, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

  11. 11

    University of Cambridge, U.K.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 3 JUN 2011
  2. Article first published online: 3 JUN 2011

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The models and concepts used to predict future climate are based on physical laws and information obtained from observations of the past. New paleoclimate records are crucial for a test of our current understanding.

The Vostok ice core record [Petit et al., 1999] showed that over the past 420 kyr (1 kyr = 1000 years), Antarctic climate and concentrations of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4,) were tightly coupled. In particular, CO2 seemed to be confined between bounds of about 180 ppmv (parts per million by volume) in glacial periods and 280 ppmv in interglacials; both gases rose and fell with climate as the Earth passed through four glacial/interglacial cycles.

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