Last Glacial Maximum Sea Surface Temperatures: A Model-Data Comparison

Abstract

In this study, the authors investigated changes in Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) sea surface temperature (SST) simulated by the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project (PMIP) multimodels and reconstructed by the Multiproxy Approach for the Reconstruction of the Glacial Ocean Surface (MARGO) project, focusing on model-data comparison. The results showed that the PMIP models produced greater ocean cooling in the North Pacific and Tropical Ocean than the MARGO, particularly in the northwestern Pacific, where the modeldata mismatch was larger. All the models failed to capture the anomalous east-west SST gradient in the North Atlantic. In addition, large discrepancies among the models were observed in the mid-latitude ocean, particularly with models in the second phase of the PMIP. Although these models showed better agreement with the MARGO, the latest models in the third phase of the PMIP did not show substantial progresses in simulating LGM ocean surface conditions. That is, improvements in the modeling community are still needed to describe SST for a better understanding of climate during the LGM.

Keywords:

• Last Glacial Maximum
• sea surface temperature
• model
• MARGO