Climate

Abrupt change in atmospheric CO2 during the last ice age

  1. Jinho Ahn1,*,
  2. Edward J. Brook2,
  3. Andreas Schmittner2,
  4. Karl Kreutz3

Article first published online: 28 SEP 2012

DOI: 10.1029/2012GL053018

Issue

Geophysical Research Letters

Geophysical Research Letters

Volume 39, Issue 18, September 2012

Additional Information

How to Cite

Ahn, J., E. J. Brook, A. Schmittner, and K. Kreutz (2012), Abrupt change in atmospheric CO2 during the last ice age, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L18711, doi:10.1029/2012GL053018.

Author Information

  1. 1

    School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

  2. 2

    College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

  3. 3

    Climate Change Institute and Department of Earth Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA

*Corresponding author: J. Ahn, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, 599 Kwanak-ro, Kwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, South Korea. (jinhoahn@snu.ac.kr)

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 28 SEP 2012
  2. Article first published online: 28 SEP 2012
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 23 AUG 2012
  4. Manuscript Revised: 21 AUG 2012
  5. Manuscript Received: 6 JUL 2012

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Keywords:

  • Antarctica;
  • abrupt climate change;
  • carbon cycles;
  • carbon dioxide;
  • ice age;
  • ice core

[1] During the last glacial period atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperature in Antarctica varied in a similar fashion on millennial time scales, but previous work indicates that these changes were gradual. In a detailed analysis of one event we now find that approximately half of the CO2increase that occurred during the 1500-year cold period between Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events 8 and 9 happened rapidly, over less than two centuries. This rise in CO2 was synchronous with, or slightly later than, a rapid increase of Antarctic temperature inferred from stable isotopes.

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