Palaeoclimate simulation of Little Ice Age

Promotedbytheinternationalresearch projectsofPAGESandCLIVAR ,thestudiesonclimaticandenvironmentalchangesinthepast 2 0 0 0yearshavedrawntheattentionofgeologistsandpalaeoclimato logistsallovertheworld[1,2 ] .AmongthemthecoldeventoftheLittleIceAge (LIA)isparticularlythemostattractiveone[3～ 10 ] ,whichisthenearesttypicalcoldperiodintheglobalrangefrommodernage ,andhadaprofoundimpactuponhumansociety[11] .Addi tionally ,moreknowledgeaboutthecauseoforiginanddynamicmechanismofLIAmayenrichandpe…

Palaeoclimate simulation of Little Ice Age

Little Ice Age (LIA) is a typical cold climate period in global scope with a profound impact upon human society. In this study, a coupled global atmospheric circulation model including the land processes (AGCM SSiB) is used to perform the simulation of LIA climate. Under the control of solar radiation reduction mechanism, the decrease of temperature is more obvious in summer than in winter; meanwhile, there is regional difference in the change of winter temperature. But the temperature decrease is the main characteristic of the annual mean temperature. Volcanic dust has an evident effect on the winter temperature decrease, but to a less extent than the solar radiation. The synchronous function caused by the reduction of solar radiation and the increase of optic depth of volcanic dust has a superposed strengthening effect on the temperature decrease in large regions. Promotion of the vegetation cover rate profits the increase of temperature, and vise versa. Certain decrease of solar radiation will favor the increase of summer monsoon precipitation in East Asia. The increase of optic depth of volcanic dust does not have a significant effect on the annual precipitation in most parts of Eurasian continent. The composite effect of the decrease of solar radiation and the increase of volcanic dust makes the summer monsoon precipitation in East China increase, and that in South Asia decrease. Together with vegetation change, the result shows that precipitation increases with the increase of vegetation coverage (e.g. East Asia), and when the vegetation coverage reduces (e.g. North Africa) the precipitation will decrease, too.