Abrupt Climate Change

Abstract

Abrupt climate change involves nonlinear responses of the Earth system to external forcing. Paleoclimate archives have revealed many instances and several types of abrupt climate change throughout Earth's history. In particular the terminations of ice ages and the Dansgaard-Oeschger events of the last ice age involved dramatic and rapid changes to many aspects of the climate system. The stability of the global ocean circulation has likely played a role in past abrupt climate change events. Abrupt climate change appears to have been more prevalent during glacial climates than interglacial climates like the present. Abrupt climate change in the future is a distinct possibility, however, and could involve similar features of the climate system as past events, including restructuring of the climate energy transport systems or the disintegration ice sheets.