PAGES - Past Global Changes

New GMST Sci Data paper

Details: Published: Tuesday, 30 June 2020 12:03

A major new compilation of pre-historic temperature records shows that global warming is reaching levels not seen for at least 6000 years.

Over the past 150 years, global warming has more than undone the global cooling that occurred over the past six millennia, according to a major study, "Holocene global mean surface temperature, a multi-method reconstruction approach", published in Nature Research’s Scientific Data today.

The study, led by PAGES Scientific Steering Committee member Darrell Kaufman, reconstructs global temperature over the Holocene. The global database on which the temperature reconstruction is based was compiled by an international group of paleoclimate scientists who came together in June 2019 in Switzerland for a PAGES-endorsed meeting. The methods used in the study build on those developed by several PAGES working groups.

Following the last major ice age, the Earth as a whole was warmest during the centuries around 6500 years ago. The global average temperature during this period was likely about 0.7°C higher than during the 1800s. Global warming since then has reached about 1°C.

Access the paper here.

Read the Nature comment piece by Harry Dowsett here.

Access a high-res version of the image here.

New Floods WG special issue

Details: Published: Monday, 29 June 2020 14:46

Floods Working Group (FWG) has released a Global and Planetary Change special issue as an outcome of their PAGES' 5th Open Science Meeting session in 2017.

Edited by Lothar Schulte, Daniel Schillereff, Juan Santisteban and Fabienne Marret-Davies, "Pluridisciplinary analysis and multi-archive reconstruction of paleofloods" contains 18 peer-reviewed papers covering various regions, including New Zealand, South America, Central Asia, Europe, and the UK.

"The study of past floods, from historical and natural archives, is challenging but offers unparalleled opportunities to document the frequency and magnitude of past floods, including rare, very large events, that occurred under a broad range of climate and/or environmental scenarios," said Professor Schulte.

Access the special issue here.

Find out more about FWG and sign up to its mailing list.

In May 2021, the group will hold the session "Towards an improved understanding of past flood variability and examples on how such data can have a bearing on present and future flood risk management" at PAGES' 6th Open Science Meeting in Agadir, Morocco. Abstract submission opens this Wednesday, 1 July 2020.

Okmok and ancient Rome

Details: Published: Tuesday, 23 June 2020 09:06

Members of PAGES' VICS working group have found evidence connecting an unexplained period of extreme cold in ancient Rome with a massive eruption of Alaska's Okmok volcano.

Around the time of Julius Caesar's death in 44 BCE, written sources describe a period of unusually cold climate, crop failures, famine, disease, and unrest in the Mediterranean Region – impacts that ultimately contributed to the downfall of the Roman Republic and Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.

Historians have long suspected a volcano to be the cause, but have been unable to pinpoint where or when such an eruption had occurred, or how severe it was.

In a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a research team of international scientists, led by Joe McConnell from the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno, USA, used an analysis of tephra (volcanic ash) found in Arctic ice cores to link the period of cold in the Mediterranean with the eruption of Alaska's Okmok volcano in 43 BCE.

Read the latest e-news

Details: Published: Thursday, 11 June 2020 10:32

Read about the latest PAGES' news, meetings and opportunities from around the world in this month's e-news.

Highlights include PAGES 6th Open Science Meeting sessions list, the call for authors for PAGES' magazine for teens, postal problems with the latest Past Global Changes Magazine, upcoming deadlines for new PAGES working groups and workshop support applications, extensive PAGES working group news, including information on cancelled and postponed meetings and workshops, the WDS-Paleo webinar link, ECN updates, Future Earth and WCRP information, and other opportunities.

2k Network survey due 31 July

Details: Published: Wednesday, 10 June 2020 12:47

The PAGES 2k Network has proceeded in three phases: Phase 1 (2008-2013), Phase 2 (2014-2016) and Phase 3 (2017-2021*).

As the network is in the final period of Phase 3, its leaders would like feedback from the PAGES community on how they can help you to facilitate 2k (or broader PAGES) science now and in the future.

Please take a few minutes to provide your suggestions via this survey, which should be completed by 31 July.

* Please note that the 2k Network now sunsets in 2021. It and many other current PAGES working groups have been extended for an additional year, due to COVID-19 disruptions.

AR6 review: Register by 29 May

Details: Published: Tuesday, 26 May 2020 17:37

Friday 29 May is the deadline for registering to review the IPCC-AR6 WGI report "Physical Science Basis of Climate Change".

This is the final opportunity to help expand the impact of paleoscience in this major international report.

You can comment on as much or as little of the report as you want.

The paleoscience information in the report is located as follows:

1. Paleo content in chapters: Text on paleo science is included in most of the 12 chapters. For a list of specific topics and section numbers, you may refer to the Paleo Table of Contents (here).

PAGES and WDS-Paleo webinar

Details: Published: Monday, 25 May 2020 15:03

webinar icon web Want to know more about important paleodata services?

On Wednesday 27 May at 14:00 UTC, PAGES will conduct a webinar with the World Data Service for Paleoclimatology (WDS-Paleo).

A replay of the webinar with a live Q&A session will be shown on Thursday 28 May at 17:00 UTC.

The webinar "Promoting FAIR principles at NOAA’s World Data Service for Paleoclimatology" will be presented by WDS-Paleo's Carrie Morrill. Morrill and her WDS-Paleo colleagues Wendy Gross and Imke Durre will be available for questions.

The primary mission of WDS-Paleo is to ensure that global paleoclimatology proxy and derived reconstruction data are maintained in a permanent archive that is easily and openly accessible to the world's science community and to other users.

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