PaleoJump database for research on rapid climate transitions

Tipping points (TPs) in the Earth system have been studied with growing interest and concern in recent years due to the potential risk of anthropogenic forcing causing abrupt, and possibly irreversible, climate transitions. Paleoclimate records are essential for identifying TPs in the Earth’s past and to properly understand the climate system’s underlying bifurcation mechanisms. Due to their varying quality, resolution, and dating methods, it is often necessary to select the records that give the best representation of past climate. Furthermore, as paleoclimate records vary in their origin, time spans, and periodicities, an objective, automated methodology is crucial for identifying and comparing TPs.

To reach this goal, here we present the PaleoJump database of carefully selected, high-resolution records originating in ice, marine sediments, speleothems, loess, and lake sediments. These records, which include tipping elements, cover long time intervals and represent a global distribution from all continents and ocean basins. For every record, a transition detection methodology based on an augmented Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is applied to identify abrupt transitions. The PaleoJump database highlights these automatically detected transitions for every record together with other essential information, including location, temporal scale and resolution, as well as temporal plots; it therefore represents a valuable resource for researchers investigating TPs in past climates. This study is supported by the H2020-funded TiPES project.