EAGER: Global Warming in an Independent Paleoclimate Record of the Past 100 Years

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

This award is made under the auspices of the EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) program, to develop an independent record of the last 100 years based on paleoclimate proxies. This is a database compilation and analysis effort. The researchers will compile hundreds of time series, many produced as the result of NSF-funded research, to composite the individual temperature sensitive time series into a global average and produce regional and thematic subsets suitable for addressing climate research questions. Preliminary research by the researchers, using a database without tree-rings data, produced a global paleo trend index from 110 temperature-sensitive proxy records. From 1880 to 1995, the index trends significantly upward, similar to the global surface temperature (GST), supporting the fidelity of the GST, and confirming the global extent of the warming trend of the past century. If successful, this approach could be applied to other climate indicators with short length (e.g., ocean pH) or sparse geographic coverage and extend the focus of the paleoclimate research community towards this short but critically important time period. In this manner, the research could have broad impact on the wider science community by catalyzing new scientific thinking using paleoclimate data. The activities fit well into the potentially transformative, high risk, and exploratory nature of the EAGER programs. It also represents a strong collaboration between NSF and NOAA scientists and archivists at the NOAA-funded World Data Center (WDC) leveraging the resources of the NSF-funded science community and the professional archivists at the WDC.