Hypersensitivity of glacial summer temperatures in Siberia

Bakker, Pepijn; Rogozhina, Irina; Merkel, Ute; Prange, Matthias

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-371-2020

Articles | Volume 16, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-371-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-371-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 1

Research article

|

18 Feb 2020

Research article |

| 18 Feb 2020

Hypersensitivity of glacial summer temperatures in Siberia

Pepijn Bakker, Irina Rogozhina, Ute Merkel, and Matthias Prange

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Final revised paper (published on 18 Feb 2020)
Preprint (discussion started on 13 Jun 2019)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review', Anonymous Referee #1, 31 Jul 2019
- AC1: 'Response to comments of reviewer 1', Pepijn Bakker, 13 Sep 2019
RC2: 'Review', Anonymous Referee #2, 31 Jul 2019
- AC2: 'Response to comments of reviewer 2', Pepijn Bakker, 13 Sep 2019

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (27 Sep 2019) by Laurie Menviel

AR by Pepijn Bakker on behalf of the Authors (29 Nov 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (08 Dec 2019) by Laurie Menviel

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (09 Dec 2019)

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (11 Jan 2020)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Bakker et al. generally do a good job addressing my previous comments. However, I still have a few suggestions for the revised manuscript that should be considered before publication.

-I agree that the TOA imbalances are not especially large. But, it is possible that regionally some of the ongoing changes are large. It would be good to mention the TOA imbalances in the text.

-Any reason not to use 50 year averages? Do you think that the differences between 30 and 50 year averages are the result of internal variability or adjustment to a new equilibrium?

-Please reword – “less than 2% of the total PI-to-LGM change in carbon pool over a 50-year period”. Does this mean less than 2% of the total PI-to-LGM change in carbon pool over a 50-year period in the Siberian region? If so, is there a large change in carbon at the start of the simulation or is there a gradual adjustment? If not, are you comparing with the global carbon change between PI and LGM? This would not be very useful.

-Maybe mention the uncertainty in surface roughness in the text.

-“They prescribe a mixture of different PFT’s in every grid cell and the apparent southward shift of the vegetation zones is thus a change in the dominance of certain PFT’s within the individual grid cells.” I do not think this statement is correct. The percentage of vegetation of different types does not change within a grid cell but the vegetation can die. The biome composition is prescribed. For example, a grid cell can be 50% shrub and 50% boreal forest. The boreal forest might die. As a result, the grid cell will be 50% shrub and 50% dead boreal forest.

-The figures have been improved. I still find the light green very difficult to see. I would recommend changing it.

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (11 Jan 2020) by Laurie Menviel

AR by Pepijn Bakker on behalf of the Authors (17 Jan 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (23 Jan 2020) by Laurie Menviel

AR by Pepijn Bakker on behalf of the Authors (24 Jan 2020) Manuscript

Short summary

Northeastern Siberia is currently known for its harsh cold climate, but remarkably it did not experience large-scale glaciation during the last ice age. We show that the region is also exceptional in climate models. As a result of subtle changes in model setup, climate models show a strong divergence in simulated glacial summer temperatures that is ultimately driven by changes in the circumpolar atmospheric stationary wave pattern and associated northward heat transport to northeastern Siberia.