TY  - JOUR
IS  - 5
Y1  - 2024/05/23/
A1  - Zhao, Anni
A1  - Feng, Ran
A1  - Brierley, Chris M
A1  - Zhang, Jian
A1  - Hu, Yongyun
PB  - COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH
UR  - https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1195-2024
SP  - 1195
TI  - Aerosol uncertainties in tropical precipitation changes for the mid-Pliocene warm period
N2  - The mid-Pliocene Warm Period (mPWP, 3.3-3.0gMa) was characterised by an atmospheric CO2 concentration exceeding 400gppmv with minor changes in continental and orbital configurations. Simulations of this past climate state have improved with newer models but still show some substantial differences from proxy reconstructions. There is little information about atmospheric aerosol concentrations during the Pliocene, but previous work suggests that it could have been quite different from the modern period. Here we apply idealised aerosol scenario experiments to examine the importance of aerosol forcing on mPWP tropical precipitation and the possibility of aerosol uncertainty explaining the mismatch between reconstructions and simulations. The absence of industrial pollutants leads to further warming, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) becomes narrower and stronger and shifts northward after removal of anthropogenic aerosols. Though not affecting the location of monsoon domain boundary, removal of anthropogenic aerosol alters the amount of rainfall within the domain, increasing summer rain rate over eastern and southern Asia and western Africa. This work demonstrates that uncertainty in aerosol forcing could be the dominant driver in tropical precipitation changes during the mid-Pliocene: causing larger impacts than the changes in topography and greenhouse gases.
VL  - 20
ID  - discovery10195473
N1  - Copyright © Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
SN  - 1814-9324
JF  - Climate of the Past
EP  - 1211
AV  - public
ER  -