Exploring Borehole Temperatures and Other Proxy Data for New Insights into the Global Climate Change

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

The long-term climate trend information preserved in borehole temperatures is complementary to the short-term variability recorded by conventional proxies. This award will continue data acquisition for the global database of borehole temperatures. Extension of the geographical coverage will enhance the analysis of the air-ground temperature interaction and allow a better assessment of regional climate variability at sub-continental, continental, and hemispheric scales. The uncertainty of a regional climate reconstruction derived from borehole temperatures is constrained by multiple factors including the noise level of the employed data, the spatial distribution of the borehole sites, and the perturbation from surface processes such as land use and land cover. This award will help refine and assess the uncertainty of borehole temperature based regional climate reconstruction by developing and refining strategies for combining the direct but low-resolution record preserved in the geothermal data with the indirect but often higher resolution record contained in traditional paleoclimatic proxies. The goals of this research will help the paleoclimate science community further its goals to advance our understanding of global climate change over the past several centuries and its natural and anthropogenic aspects. Research on temperatures from boreholes will enhance our ability to model and predict future change in climate. The data products will be available online for scientific research and educational purposes.