Final Report 2001 of SCOR-IMAGES Working Group 117
Synthesis of Decadal to millennial Climate Records of the Last 80 ky
Submitted by Michael Sarnthein and James P. Kennett as co-chairs
Activities in 2001
The activities of W.G. 117 concentrated on a meeting of the W.G. at the U.C.S.B. in Santa Barbara, CA, from May 24-27, arranged by J.P. Kennett. The following eight members and associated members attended the meeting:
- J. Allen (UK)
- J. Beer (Switzerland)
- P. Grootes (G)
- J.P. Kennett (USA), co-chair
- C. Laj (F)
- J. McManus (USA)
- R. Ramesh (India)
- M. Sarnthein (G), co-chair
The meeting in Santa Barbara served the following two major abjectives:
- To edit the scientific papers
submitted after the TRINS workshop in 2/2000 (i.e., the previous mtg.
of W.G. 117), based on an evaluation of two scientific reviews each.
Until the end of August the revised manuscripts were edited/ reviewed
for a second time, sent to the publisher, and will be published in a
special volume of Quaternary Science Reviews (QSR) in late 2001/early
2002. It is interesting to note that a great portion of the papers were
submitted by groups of author that had met at the Trins meeting for
the first time, on this way demonstrating the great stimulating effect
of this workshop
- To write a synthesis on
"Decadal-to-Millennial-Scale Climate
Variability - Chronology and Mechanisms: Summary and Recommendations"
(PDF-Document), based on new results
and current thinking in the light of the TRINS meeting, as was outlined
in the SCOR-IMAGES objectives.
This 20-pages report will be published as 'Introduction' to the special QSR volume outlined above. The main recommendations are: (1) To establish an ice core master chronology for decadal to centennial-scale climate variability over the last 110 ky; (2) To employ special events in radionuclid and paleomagnetic-intensity records for correlation of centennial-to-millennial-scale climate signals between terrestrial, ice, and marine paleoclimatic records from different ocean basins; (3) To calibrate 14C datings of Marine Isotope Stage 3 (30-60 ky B.P.) at high precision for developing a superior new tracer of past ocean dynamics; (4) To reconstruct the spatial patterns of climate variability on a global scale as response to millennial-scale Dansgaard-Oeschger climate cycles in the North Atlantic realm; (5) To trace millennial-scale sea level variations as response, correlation signal, and global transfer mechnism of short-term climate and ice volume changes.
Future/Final activities
The W.G. 117 issued a call for a special session on "Synthesis of millennial-scale climate variability" at the AGU Fall Mtg. 2001 in San Francisco.
No more financial support of SCOR will be requested.
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31. August 2001
Michael Sarnthein James P. Kennett