Sensitivity of millennial-scale climate oscillations to boundary conditions in HadCM3 glacial simulations

Abstract

Romé et al. (2022) present a new set of long-run Last Glacial Maximum experiments with millennial-scale climate oscillations between cold and warm modes. These oscillations are triggered by different snapshots of ice-sheet meltwater derived from the early stages of the last deglaciation. The overall characteristics of the oscillating events share similarities with δ18O records of the last glacial period. We test the robustness of these oscillations under different climate conditions, i.e., changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and orbital configuration. These experiments were run with intentions to better understand the range of conditions the oscillations can be sustained within the model and provide additional insight into the triggering mechanisms that control abrupt climate changes. The results of our sensitivity analysis show that small changes in carbon dioxide concentrations can impact the periodicity and existence of oscillations. A decrease in carbon dioxide concentration decreases periodicity, and an increase in carbon dioxide concentration increases periodicity, leading to an end of the oscillations. Our results also show that for changes in orbital configuration, an increase in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation decreases periodicity and potentially also amplitude. The results show that small changes in climate conditions can impact the shape and existence of oscillations and how this could relate to the changing periodicity and amplitude of observed Dansgaard-Oeschger events as well as transitions from glacial to interglacial states.