Articles | Volume 3, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-3-129-2007
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-3-129-2007
28 Feb 2007
 | 28 Feb 2007

The DO-climate events are probably noise induced: statistical investigation of the claimed 1470 years cycle

P. D. Ditlevsen, K. K. Andersen, and A. Svensson

Abstract. The significance of the apparent 1470 years cycle in the recurrence of the Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events, observed in the Greenland ice cores, is debated. Here we present statistical significance tests of this periodicity. The detection of a periodicity relies strongly on the accuracy of the dating of the DO events. Here we use both the new NGRIP GICC05 time scale based on multi-parameter annual layer counting and the GISP2 time scale where the periodicity is most pronounced. For the NGRIP dating the recurrence times are indistinguishable from a random occurrence. This is also the case for the GISP2 dating, except in the case where the DO9 event is omitted from the record.