The Climate of the MIS-13 Interglacial according to HadCM3

Abstract

The climate of the Marine Isotopic Stage 13 (MIS-13) is explored in the fully coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation model the Hadley Centre Coupled Model, version 3 (HadCM3). It is found that the strong insolation forcing at the time imposed a strengthened land–ocean thermal contrast, resulting in an intensified summer monsoon over Asia. The addition of land ice over North America and Eurasia results in a stationary wave feature across the Eurasian continent. This leads to a high pressure anomaly over the Sea of Japan with increased advection of warm moist air onto the Chinese landmasses. This in turn reinforces the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM), highlighting the counterintuitive notion that, depending on the background insolation and its size, ice can indeed contribute to strengthening the EASM. The modeling results support the geological record indication of a strong EASM 500 000 years ago. Furthermore, Arctic Oscillation, El Niño–Southern Oscillation, and Indian Ocean dipole–like teleconnection features are discussed in the MIS-13 environment. It is shown that the change in the tropical Pacific sea surface temperature has the potential to impact the North Atlantic climate through an atmospheric “bridge.”