Testing the reliability of global surface temperature reconstructions of the Last Glacial Cycle with pseudo-proxy experiments

Baudouin, Jean-Philippe; Weitzel, Nils; May, Maximilian; Jonkers, Lukas; Dolman, Andrew M.; Rehfeld, Kira

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-381-2025

Articles | Volume 21, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-381-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-381-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 2

Research article

|

05 Feb 2025

Research article |

| 05 Feb 2025

Testing the reliability of global surface temperature reconstructions of the Last Glacial Cycle with pseudo-proxy experiments

Jean-Philippe Baudouin, Nils Weitzel, Maximilian May, Lukas Jonkers, Andrew M. Dolman, and Kira Rehfeld

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-381-2025-supplement

Data sets

Code and data in support of "Testing the reliability of global surface temperature reconstructions of the last glacial cycle" Jean-Philippe Baudouin https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11126854

PalMod2 MPI-M MPI-ESM1-2-CR Transient Simulations of the Last Deglaciation with prescribed ice sheets from GLAC-1D reconstructions (r1i1p2f2) U. Mikolajewicz et al. https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/PMMXMCRTDGP122

QUEST Quaternary: FAMOUS glacial cycle model data T. Lenton https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/a43dcfaccfae4824ab9ab2b572703e72/

3Ma transient climate simulation ICCP https://doi.org/10.22741/iccp.20230001

Model code and software

Code and data in support of "Testing the reliability of global surface temperature reconstructions of the last glacial cycle" Jean-Philippe Baudouin https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11126854

Short summary

Earth's past temperature reconstructions are critical for understanding climate change. We test the ability of these reconstructions using climate simulations. Uncertainties, mainly from past temperature measurement methods and age determination, impact reconstructions over time. While more data enhance accuracy for long-term trends, high-quality data are more important for short-term precision. Our study lays the groundwork for better reconstructions and suggests avenues for improvement.