Image:Vostok Plot.png

From Global Warming Art

Vostok_Plot.png; Other sizes: 100, 200, 300, 450

Description

Graph of carbon dioxide (CO₂), temperature, and dust concentration measured from the Vostok, Antarctica ice core as reported by Petit et al. (1999). The close correspondence between carbon dioxide changes and temperature changes is a characteristic feature of the recent ice ages, though it is noted that temperature changes begin slightly (~800 years) before the carbon dioxide changes (Caillon et al. 2003) and are presumed to be initiated by Milankovitch cycles. However, the greenhouse gas feedbacks indicated here are believed to be responsible for most of the ice age climate change, especially far from continental ice sheets (Weaver et al. 1998).

Higher dust levels are characteristic of cold, dry periods.

Photograph of an ice core, similar to the kind from which this data was extracted.

Copyright

Created by Robert A. Rohde for Wikipedia as a replacement for a previous image created by William M. Connolley.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

References

Data from: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/icecore/antarctica/vostok/vostok_data.html

[abstract] [DOI] Petit J.R., Jouzel J., Raynaud D., Barkov N.I., Barnola J.M., Basile I., Bender M., Chappellaz J., Davis J., Delaygue G., Delmotte M., Kotlyakov V.M., Legrand M., Lipenkov V., Lorius C., Pépin L., Ritz C., Saltzman E., Stievenard M. (1999). "Climate and Atmospheric History of the Past 420,000 years from the Vostok Ice Core, Antarctica". Nature 399: 429-436.
[abstract] [DOI] Nicolas Caillon, Jeffrey P. Severinghaus, Jean Jouzel, Jean-Marc Barnola, Jiancheng Kang, Volodya Y. Lipenkov (2003). "Timing of Atmospheric CO₂ and Antarctic Temperature Changes Across Termination III". Science 299: 1728-1731.
Andrew J. Weaver, Michael Eby, Augustus F. Fanning & Edward C. Wiebe (1998). "Simulated influence of carbon dioxide, orbital forcing and ice sheets on the climate of the Last Glacial Maximum". Nature 394: 847-853. [1]