BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:The Last Interglacial period: the key to understanding future ice-
 sheet stability and sea-level changes under a warm climate - Emma Stone\, 
 University of Bristol
DTSTART:20150521T090000Z
DTEND:20150521T100000Z
UID:TALK59501@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Jonathan Kingslake
DESCRIPTION:The Last Interglacial period (LIG\, 129-116 thousand years ago
 \, ka) represents a time when sea-level was at least 6 m higher than today
  and high latitude summer temperatures were several degrees warmer.  For t
 hese reasons\, along with reasonable palaeo-data coverage and temporal res
 olution\, this time period provides an ideal opportunity with which to und
 erstand and test the climate and ice sheet mechanisms that operate under w
 arm climates in order to more robustly inform on future warm climates and 
 their impact on sea-level change.\n\nThe IPCC AR5 reported in its Summary 
 for Policy Makers that during the LIG “…the Greenland ice sheet very l
 ikely contributed between 1.4 and 4.3 m to the higher global mean sea leve
 l\, implying with medium confidence an additional contribution from the An
 tarctic ice sheet”. Here I review this potential reduction in ice-volume
  of the Greenland ice sheet 130-120ka\, derived from modelling and data ap
 proaches. \n \nModelling the Antarctic component to sea-level change is mo
 re complex\, however. Up until recently\, climate model simulations of the
  LIG were compared with temperature reconstructions representing the warme
 st temperature for the whole time period\, neglecting any temporal variati
 on between regions (e.g. Turney & Jones\, 2010).  A new compilation (Capro
 n et al\, 2014) of high-latitude temperature changes across the LIG shows 
 at 130ka non-synchronous maximum summer temperature changes between the tw
 o hemispheres with the Southern Ocean and Antarctica records showing early
  warming compared with North Atlantic records.  Comparison with model simu
 lations selected as part of an ‘ensemble of opportunity’ at the PMIP3 
 2012 General Meeting  (Lunt et al. 2013) shows that the models predict war
 mer than present conditions earlier than documented in the North Atlantic 
 records\, while the reconstructed early Southern Ocean and Antarctic warmi
 ng is not captured by any model. Not only does this comparison highlight t
 he importance of producing defined time slices rather than one representat
 ive climate for the LIG but implies that important  missing processes in t
 he models are likely required to account for this temporal mismatch betwee
 n data and model.\n \nHere I show that by not neglecting the melt of ice s
 heets from the previous glaciation this mismatch between data and model ca
 n partially be resolved.  This will have implications for modelling the st
 ability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet as it provides a mechanism by whic
 h to warm the Southern Ocean when other forcings were similar to today.\n
LOCATION:British Antarctic Survey\, Room 307
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR