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Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., 4, 3339-3361, 2011
www.geosci-model-dev-discuss.net/4/3339/2011/
doi:10.5194/gmdd-4-3339-2011
© Author(s) 2011. This work is distributed
under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Set-up and preliminary results of mid-Pliocene climate simulations with CAM3.1

Q. Yan1,2, Z. Zhang1,3, H. Wang1,4, Y. Gao1,5, and W. Zheng6
1Nansen-Zhu International Research Centre, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
2Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
3Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, UniResearch, Bergen 5007, Norway
4Climate Change Research Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
5Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center/Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen 5006, Norway
6State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China

Abstract. The mid-Pliocene warm period (~3.3 to 3.0 Ma BP) is a potential analogue for future climate under global warming. In this study, we use an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) called CAM3.1 to simulate the mid-Pliocene climate with the PRISM3D boundary conditions. The simulations show that the global annual mean surface air temperature (SAT) increases by 2.0 °C in the mid-Pliocene compared with the pre-industrial temperature. The greatest warming mainly occurs in the high latitudes of both hemispheres, with little change in SAT at low latitudes. The equator-to-pole SAT gradient is reduced in the mid-Pliocene simulation. The annual mean precipitation is enhanced by 3.6% of the pre-industrial value. However, the changes in precipitation are greater in low latitudes than high latitudes.

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Citation: Yan, Q., Zhang, Z., Wang, H., Gao, Y., and Zheng, W.: Set-up and preliminary results of mid-Pliocene climate simulations with CAM3.1, Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., 4, 3339-3361, doi:10.5194/gmdd-4-3339-2011, 2011.   Bibtex   EndNote   Reference Manager    XML
 

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