Modelling paleoclimates and the transitions between different climatic states still represents a challenge for models of all complexities. At the same time, the past offers a unique possibility to test models that are used to predict future climate. Increasingly more time periods are being considered for this. Examples are the mid-Holocene, the Last Glacial Maximum and the Eemian. Also pre-Quaternary Greenhouse states like the mid-Pliocene and the PETM are relevant time periods, especially as more proxy data become available for model-data comparison studies. We invite papers on all paleoclimate model simulations, including time-slices (as in the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project) and transient simulations of climate variations on timescales ranging from millennial to glacial cycles and beyond. This session has its focus on (but is not restricted to) the Cenozoic.

We also welcome papers on the use of paleoclimates to constrain model forecasts of future climate. Comparison of different models (complex GCMs, EMICs and/or conceptual models), models to data, paleo-dat assimilation and the inclusion of proxy-type output to ease model-data comparisons, are particularly encouraged.

Invited speakers
Zhengyu Liu (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA): Transient modelling of the last deglaciation
Alan Haywood (University of Leeds, UK): Pliocene data-model comparisons