Past Climates: How We Get Our Data

E. Rohling
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Abstract

On the work floor, research on past climates is known as paleoclimatology, and research on past oceans as paleoceanography. But they are very tightly related, and we shall discuss both combined under the one term of paleoclimatology. Within paleoclimatology, interests are spread over three fundamental fields. The first field is concerned with dating ancient evidence and is referred to as chronological studies. These studies are essential because all records of past climate change need to be dated as accurately as possible to ensure that we know when the studied climate changes occurred, how fast they were, and whether changes seen in various components of the climate system happened at the same time or at different times. The second field concerns observational studies, where the observations can be of different types. Some are direct measurements; for example, sunspot counts or temperature records. Some are historical, written accounts of anecdotal evidence, such as reports on the frequency of frozen rivers, floods, or droughts. Such records are very local and often subjective, so they are usually no good as primary evidence. But they can offer great support and validation to reconstructions from other tools. Besides direct and anecdotal data, we encounter the dominant type of evidence used in the discipline. These are the so- called proxy data, or proxies. Proxies are indirect measures that approximate (hence the name proxy) changes in important climate- system variables, such as temperature, CO2 concentrations, nutrient concentrations, and so on. This chapter outlines some of the most important proxies. The third field in paleoclimatology concerns modeling. It employs numerical models for climate system simulation and simpler classes of so-called box- models. Numerical climate models range from Earth System models that are relatively crude and can therefore be set to run simulations of many thousands of years, to very complex and refined coupled models that are computationally very greedy and thus give simulations of great detail but only over short intervals of time. Box- models are much simpler and faster to run, and they are most used in modeling of the carbon cycle or other geochemical properties.
过去的气候:我们如何获得数据
在工作层,对过去气候的研究被称为古气候学,对过去海洋的研究被称为古海洋学。但它们是密切相关的,我们将把它们结合在古气候学这个术语下进行讨论。在古气候学中,兴趣分布在三个基本领域。第一个领域是研究古代证据的年代,被称为年代研究。这些研究是必不可少的,因为过去气候变化的所有记录都需要尽可能准确地确定年代,以确保我们知道所研究的气候变化发生的时间、速度,以及在气候系统的各个组成部分中所看到的变化是在同一时间发生的还是在不同时间发生的。第二个领域涉及观察研究,其中观察可以是不同类型的。有些是直接测量;例如,太阳黑子计数或温度记录。有些是关于轶事证据的历史记录,如关于冰冻河流、洪水或干旱频率的报告。这样的记录是非常局部的,而且往往是主观的,所以它们通常不能作为主要证据。但是它们可以为其他工具的重建提供很好的支持和验证。除了直接和轶事数据,我们还遇到了该学科中使用的主要证据类型。这些就是所谓的代理数据或代理。代用物是近似(因此称为代用物)重要气候系统变量变化的间接测量,如温度、二氧化碳浓度、营养物质浓度等。本章概述了一些最重要的代理。古气候学的第三个领域涉及模拟。它采用数值模式进行气候系统模拟,并采用较简单的所谓箱型模式。数值气候模式的范围从相对粗糙的地球系统模式到非常复杂和精细的耦合模式,这些模式在计算上非常苛刻,因此只能在很短的时间间隔内进行非常详细的模拟。箱形模型更简单,运行起来也更快,它们最常用于碳循环或其他地球化学性质的建模。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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