RAPID - Round 1 - ISOMAP UK: a combined data-modelling investigation of water isotopes and their interpretation during rapid climate change events Project

Introduction

The aims of the proposal are to compare high-resolution isotope records from terrestrial archives in NW Europe with model simulations of isotopes in precipitation in order to investigate the role of different forcing factors in rapid climate change during the late glacial and Holocene and to undertake model validation. The proposal constitutes a UK contribution to the PAGES ISOMAP initiative. A water isotope model will be developed for the UK Hadley centre model HadCM3. Comparisons will be made between simulations of the isotopic composition of precipitation during periods of rapid climatic change and reconstructions from well-dated and well-calibrated palaeo-archives (lake sediments, peat and speleothem) generated in this study and obtained from the literature, in order to investigate the causes and nature of abrupt climatic events.

Project Duration: 1 May 2003 - 30 Apr 2008

This project is funded by NERC - Grant Ref. NER/T/S/2002/00460 - through the RAPID Climate Change NERC directed mode programme.

Availability of data

The ISOMAP project will use both modelling and observational data. The latter comprises existing and new data to be collected during the project duration. Broadly, observational data will be obtained from palaeoarchives (speleothem, cores from bogs and lakes) and modern water monitoring (cave drips, bog and lake water).

In addition, there are data that have already been collected in other projects. These include Jim Marshall's NERC-funded Hawes Water data, speleothem data from ASCRIBE's Crag Cave site, a Belgian speleothem site and a southern German lake site (Ammersee).

The modelling component of ISOMAP involves adding an isotope module to a coupled ocean atmosphere model (HadCM3, FAMOUS) to produce a 3-D isotopic distribution. The primary focus within ISOMAP will be the 8.2 kyr and Younger Dryas events. It is anticipated that several RAPID projects will be interested in the output. Observational data from ISOMAP and ASCRIBE will be used to validate the model. The model will also be evaluated against isotope distributions from ice core data.

For the 8.2 kyr event, an ensemble of simulations (approximately 200 years) will be run using FAMOUS. The Younger Dryas event will require fewer but longer (~5000 years) FAMOUS simulations. If there is sufficient time, the past 1000 years will be simulated by running HadCM3 with the isotope module. The envisaged timescale for full scheme isotope-enabled model output is in the third year of the project.

Access to data and information

Data and software supplied from this project to the BADC will be stored in the BADC RAPID archive.

Access to the archive is currently restricted to participants to this particular project. If you are a programme participant and would like to access this RAPID project data, then please apply for access^* to the RAPID data.

You will be requested to abide by the RAPID Climate Change Data Policy.
Data management, availability and use are ruled by the RAPID Climate Change Programme Data Management Plan (PDF document).
Access to Hadley Centre model data held at the BADC is subject to the signature of the NERC-Met Office agreement.

^* Note that to apply for access to this dataset, you should first register as a BADC user (anyone is allowed to register). If you are already a registered BADC user, skip this step. If you have forgotten your BADC user ID and/or password, please contact the BADC helpdesk at badc@rl.ac.uk. To register as a new BADC user, please follow the instructions online.

Citation

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Who to contact

This RAPID project is led by Prof J.A. Holmes of the University College London, with co-investigators at the University of Southampton, University of Liverpool, University of Manchester, University of Bristol and the NERC British Antarctic Survey

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