Warm climate transitions: A general circulation modeling study of the Late Paleocene Thermal Maximum (∼56 Ma)

Abstract

A unique opportunity to study rapid climate transitions in a warm climate world is provided by the Late Paleocene Thermal Maximum (LPTM), a ∼100,000 year interval during which high‐latitude temperatures suddenly rose to their highest levels in the Cenozoic. In order to explore the processes and feedbacks which may have generated or limited this brief warming event, we model the atmosphere in equilibrium with sea surface temperatures (SSTs) derived for LPTM and for conditions more representative of the late Paleocene or early Eocene. Our model results suggest that conditions during the LPTM were more equable relative to the late Paleocene or early Eocene, with the mean annual temperature range reduced by more than 5°C over much of the continental interiors and precipitation over land increased by 5–10%. Nevertheless, despite specifying warm polar SSTs which exclude sea‐ice, the model produces January continental interior temperatures less than −13°C, in contrast to proxy data estimates of higher temperatures. The zonal wind strength is drastically reduced during the LPTM, and during Northern Hemisphere winter, deep atmospheric convection over the Arctic Sea is generated owing to the specified warm SSTs. We calculate substantial wind‐driven ocean circulation response to model‐produced wind fields for these time intervals, including increases in inferred western boundary current strength of 8–28%. In general, our results are in agreement with deep‐sea sediment‐derived clay and eolian records which suggest warm, wet conditions with less vigorous atmospheric circulation during these time periods. However, major changes in the high‐latitude hydrological cycle found in our LPTM experiment results raise important questions about high‐latitude stable isotopic paleoclimate interpretations.