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Possible role of dust-induced regional warming in abrupt climate change during the last glacial period

Nature volume 384, pages 447–449 (1996)Cite this article

Abstract

RECORDS from loess, sediments and ice cores indicate that the concentrations of tropospheric aerosols were higher in glacial periods than they are today, and that they peaked just before glacial terminations1–10. Energy-balance models have suggested11–14 that these high glacial aerosol loadings were a source of glacial cooling of the order of 1–3 °C. Here we present a different view based on three-dimensional climate simulations, which suggest that high glacial dust loading may have caused significant, episodic regional warming of over 5 °C downwind of major Asian and ice-margin dust sources. Less warming was likely close to and over the oceans because of local cooling by sea-salt and marine sulphate aerosols. Abrupt changes in dust loading are associated with the Dansgaard–Oeschger and Heinrich climate events and with glacial termination3,8,15, suggesting that dust-induced warming may have played a role in triggering these large shifts in Pleistocene climate.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NOAA Paleoclimatology Program, National Geophysical Data Center, 325 Broadway, E/GC, Boulder, Colorado, 80303, USA

    Jonathan Overpeck

  2. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 8039, USA

    Jonathan Overpeck

  3. NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2880 Broadway, New York, New York, 10025, USA

    David Rind & Andrew Lacis

  4. Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University, New York, New York, 10027, USA

    Richard Healy

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  1. Jonathan Overpeck
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  2. David Rind
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  3. Andrew Lacis
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  4. Richard Healy
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Overpeck, J., Rind, D., Lacis, A. et al. Possible role of dust-induced regional warming in abrupt climate change during the last glacial period. Nature 384, 447–449 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1038/384447a0

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