Atmospheric response to Ice Age conditions: Climatology near the Earth's surface

Abstract

We present a 6‐year simulation of the ice age atmosphere using the T21 Atmospheric General Circulation Model (AGCM) of the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). The lower boundary conditions (18 kyr B.P.) were taken from CLIMAP Project Members (1981). The analysis is restricted to the surface climatology for two reasons: The surface fields are the test data derived from the geological record on land, and they define the upper boundary conditions for simulating the glacial ocean. Model results are shown for the mean annual surface fields of temperature, wind, and precipitation. In the global average the surface temperature was 4.7°C cooler compared to the present temperature. The wind strength increased in mid‐latitudes and decreased in tropical trade wind regions. Precipitation did not change significantly in the global average; however, precipitation decreased over land and increased over the ocean. Most of the difference patterns between the present conditions and the ice age climate were statistically significant. The simulated surface climatology is roughly consistent with the paleogeological evidence and with numerical AGCM simulations of other authors. This suggests that presently available AGCMs, including the ECMWF model (T21), are able to describe climates far away from the present, although internal parameterizations were tuned to present data sets.