Core aspects of climate models are sound: The proof is in the plankton

For the past 95 million years, the engine for distributing ocean heat has remained consistent.

That is one of the findings of a new, Yale-led study that tracks the evolution of Earth's climate system with a novel approach for calculating the temperature difference between oceans in higher and lower latitudes. A new way to gauge the accuracy of climate models is offered by the research.

The study was published in the journal.

There are many parts to climate science. Daniel Gaskell, a PhD student at Yale and the first author of the study, said that they are trying to improve the foundations by testing some of the underlying dynamics of climate models.

Pincelli Hull is a Yale assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences and co-author of the new study.

One way to understand the global climate system is to imagine it as a giant heat engine. The engine tries to bring the sun's heat to the higher latitudes near the North and South poles. The difference in sea surface temperatures between low and high latitudes is known as the latitudinal temperature gradient.

Climate models work to reconstruct the climate of Earth's past and predict the climate of the future, but how well they work is an important factor.

Scientists say it has been difficult to nail down reliable surface temperature data. For one thing, there are relatively few geological or biochemical proxies for past temperatures. There can be disagreements between proxy temperature estimates and climate models.

The proof is in plankton, according to Gaskell, Hull, and their colleagues.

The chemistry of plankton shells tells you a lot.

The researchers used fossils from a single-celled organisms called foraminifera to create a 95-million-year record.

The temperature difference has been consistent over time, according to Hull.

How do the climate models hold up against this new record? The researchers say it's quite well.

Gaskell said that the models work better than they thought.

More information: Daniel E. Gaskell et al, The latitudinal temperature gradient and its climate dependence as inferred from foraminiferal δ 18 O over the past 95 million years, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2111332119 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Citation: Core aspects of climate models are sound: The proof is in the plankton (2022, March 8) retrieved 8 March 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-03-core-aspects-climate-proof-plankton.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.