Cold conditions in Antarctica during the Little Ice Age - Im
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TitleCold conditions in Antarctica during the Little Ice Age - Implications for abrupt climate change mechanismsAbstractThe Little Ice Age (LIA) is one of the most prominent climate shifts in the past 5000. yrs. It has been suggested that the LIA might be the most recent of the Dansgaard-Oeschger events, which are better known as abrupt, large scale climate oscillations during the last glacial period. If the case, then according to Broecker (2000a, 2000b) Antarctica should have warmed during the LIA, when the Northern Hemisphere was cold. Here we present new data from the Ross Sea, Antarctica, that indicates surface temperatures were  2 Â^circC colder during the LIA, with colder sea surface temperatures in the Southern Ocean and/or increased sea-ice extent, stronger katabatic winds, and decreased snow accumulation. Whilst we find there was large spatial and temporal variability, overall Antarctica was cooler and stormier during the LIA. Although temperatures have warmed since the termination of the LIA, atmospheric circulation strength has remained at the same, elevated level. We conclude, that the LIA was either caused by alternative forcings, or that the sea-saw mechanism operates differently during warm periods. Copyright 2011 Elsevier B.V.AcknowledgementsWe would like to thank Antarctica New Zealand and Scott Base for the logistical support. We are grateful for useful suggestions and comments by two anonymous reviewers. This project was funded the Foundation of Research Science and Technology via contracts awarded to Victoria University of Wellington and GNS Science (contracts VICX0704, CO5X0202, and CO5X0902). Monthly mean NCEP re-analysis time series was obtained from the NOAA, Earth System Research Laboratory (http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/cgi-bin/data/timeseries/timeseries1.pl), hourly temperature data for Scott Base were obtained from the National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (http://cliflo.niwa.co.nz.ezproxy.otago.ac.nz/index.html), and the monthly mean temperature data for Lake Vida were obtained from the Long-Term Ecological Research Programme (http://huey.colorado.edu.ezproxy.otago.ac.nz/LTER/datasets/meteorology/vida.html).
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1st AuthorBertler, N.AuthorBertler, N.Mayewski, P.Carter, L.Year2011JournalEarth and Planetary Science LettersVolume308Number1/02/2017Pages41-51DOI10.1016/j.epsl.2011.05.021KeywordsAbrupt climate changeAntarcticaLittle Ice AgeMediaeval Warm PeriodSea-saw mechanismSouthern Ocean, Atmospheric temperatureGlacial geologyIceSurface properties, Climate change, atmospheric circulationclimate changeLast GlacialLittle Ice AgeMedieval Warm PeriodNorthern Hemispherepaleoclimatesea icesea surface temperature, AntarcticaRoss SeaSouthern Ocean, rank5Author KeywordsAbrupt climate changeAntarcticaLittle Ice AgeMediaeval Warm PeriodSea-saw mechanismSouthern Ocean
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TypeArticleCitationBertler, N., Mayewski, P. and Carter, L. (2011). Cold conditions in Antarctica during the Little Ice Age - Implications for abrupt climate change mechanisms. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 308(1-2): 41-51 IdentifierBertler2011Relevancerank5
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Carter, L., Cold conditions in Antarctica during the Little Ice Age - Im , [Bertler2011]. Antarctica NZ, accessed 02/08/2026, https://adam.antarcticanz.govt.nz/nodes/view/63394, 10.1016/j.epsl.2011.05.021