Sea-ice-free Arctic during the Last Interglacial supports fast future loss

Guarino, Maria Vittoria ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7531-4560; Sime, Louise C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9093-7926; Schröeder, David; Malmierca Vallet, Irene ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2871-9741; Rosenblum, Erica; Ringer, Mark; Ridley, Jeff; Feltham, Danny; Bitz, Cecilia; Steig, Eric J.; Wolff, Eric; Stroeve, Julienne; Sellar, Alistair. 2020 Sea-ice-free Arctic during the Last Interglacial supports fast future loss. Nature Climate Change, 10. 928-932. 10.1038/s41558-020-0865-2

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Abstract/Summary

The Last Interglacial (LIG), a warmer period 130,000–116,000 years before present, is a potential analogue for future climate change. Stronger LIG summertime insolation at high northern latitudes drove Arctic land summer temperatures 4–5 °C higher than in the pre-industrial era. Climate model simulations have previously failed to capture these elevated temperatures, possibly because they were unable to correctly capture LIG sea-ice changes. Here, we show that the latest version of the fully coupled UK Hadley Center climate model (HadGEM3) simulates a more accurate Arctic LIG climate, including elevated temperatures. Improved model physics, including a sophisticated sea-ice melt-pond scheme, result in a complete simulated loss of Arctic sea ice in summer during the LIG, which has yet to be simulated in past generations of models. This ice-free Arctic yields a compelling solution to the long-standing puzzle of what drove LIG Arctic warmth and supports a fast retreat of future Arctic summer sea ice.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1038/s41558-020-0865-2
ISSN:	0028-0836
Date made live:	10 Aug 2020 16:16 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/526095

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