Bridging paleoclimate records and climate model simulations with a novel model/proxy comparison framework

Project duration

2020 - 2022

Cooperation

This is a Formas (the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development) funded project lead by Dr. Kristina Seftigen (Gothenburg University Laboratory for Dendrochronology, University of Gothenburg), with WSL as project co-PI. The project combines tree-ring anatomy, proxy system modelling, and the last-millennium PMIP4/CMIP6 model simulations to better characterize the northern hemisphere temperature evolution over the last ~1,000 years. The project goals are to 1) produce and analyze multiple, millennium-long, dendroanatomical time series at strategically selected sites across the Northern Hemisphere; 2) develop and adapt a proxy system modelling (PSM) framework that is employed to sharpen climate-signal interpretation of the novel proxy parameters, to quantify uncertainties with traditional statistical calibration approaches and retrodict inter-annual to long-term temperature variability of the last millennium; 3) compare and integrate proxy data and model simulations to jointly address uncertainties in both and generate critical insights into the dynamics of the climate system that each would be unable to provide separately.