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Detailed Reference Information |
Morales Maqueda, M.A. and Rahmstorf, S. (2002). Did Antarctic sea-ice expansion cause glacial CO2 decline?. Geophysical Research Letters 29: doi: 10.1029/2001GL013240. issn: 0094-8276. |
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Recently, Stephens and Keeling <2000> have put forward an appealing theory for explaining the decrease in glacial atmospheric CO2. They argue that a compact sea-ice cover extending southward of ~55¿ S trapped large amounts of CO2 beneath the sea surface, thus accounting for the lower atmospheric concentrations. An atmosphere-ocean box model in which sea-ice area is prescribed allows them to simulate ~80% of the CO2 drawdown. However, glacial CO2 levels can be attained in their model only when the fraction of ice-covered area southward of the Antarctic Polar Front rises to 99--100%. We present simulations with a coupled sea ice-upper ocean model indicating that ice-area fractions so large might have not prevailed even under rather extreme glacial conditions. The combination of our glacial ice-coverage estimates with the ice area-CO2 relation derived by Stephens and Keeling suggests that CO2 sequestration under sea ice could account for at most 15--50% of the total glacial CO2 decline. |
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Abstract |
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Keywords
Oceanography, General, Paleoceanography, Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, Paleoclimatology, Oceanography, General, Arctic and Antarctic oceanography, Oceanography, General, Numerical modeling |
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Publisher
American Geophysical Union 2000 Florida Avenue N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009-1277 USA 1-202-462-6900 1-202-328-0566 service@agu.org |
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