EGU22-7520, updated on 07 Jan 2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-7520
EGU General Assembly 2022
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Meridional temperature gradients during the past 250 million years: Proxies versus Models

Mengyu Wei1, Jun Yang1, Yongyun Hu1, Yonggang Liu1, Xiang Li1, Xiujuan Bao1, Jiaqi Guo1, Jiawenjing Lan1, Zhibo Li1, Qifan Lin1, Kai Man1,2, Zihan yin1, and Shuai Yuan1
Mengyu Wei et al.
  • 1Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • 2Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China

In this study, we investigate the meridional temperature gradients during the past 250 million years. We compare the differences between proxy data of oxygen isotopes and lithologic indicators and globally coupled atmosphere-ocean climate system model simulation results. Two climate models are employed, CESM1.2.2 and HadleyCM3. There are several significant differences between the model results and Scotese’s reconstruction and proxy data: 1) the tropical surface temperatures are usually higher in the model simulations than both Scotese’s reconstruction (Scotese 2016; Scotese et al. 2021) and proxy data (e.g., Huber and Caballero 2012, Song et al. 2019; Zhu et al. 2019), whereas the surface temperatures in high latitudes are usually lower; 2) the meridional temperature gradients in the model simulations are smaller in low latitudes but larger in the middle latitudes than Scotese’s reconstruction. These comparisons are helpful for paleoclimatology understanding and for future paleo-temperature reconstructions.

How to cite: Wei, M., Yang, J., Hu, Y., Liu, Y., Li, X., Bao, X., Guo, J., Lan, J., Li, Z., Lin, Q., Man, K., yin, Z., and Yuan, S.: Meridional temperature gradients during the past 250 million years: Proxies versus Models, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-7520, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-7520, 2022.