Simulations of Permian Climate and Comparisons with Climate‐Sensitive Sediments

Abstract

Abstract We use a climate model to simulate two intervals of Permian climate: the Sakmarian (ca. 280 Ma), at the end of the major Permo‐Carboniferous glaciation, and the Wordian (ca. 265 Ma). We explore the climate sensitivity to various levels of atmospheric CO2 concentration and to changes in geography and topography between the two periods. The model simulates large seasonality and high aridity in the continental interiors of both hemispheres for both periods. The northern summer monsoon weakens and the southern monsoon strengthens between the Sakmarian and the Wordian, owing to changes in geography and topography. The northern middle and high latitudes cool in winter, between the Sakmarian and Wordian, associated with northward shift of the continents. This high‐latitude cooling strengthens the winter westerlies and shifts the maximum storm‐track precipitation south. In the Southern Hemisphere, the winter westerlies weaken from the Sakmarian to the Wordian. Starting the simulations with no permanent i...