Last Updated:
February 28, 2007

GCRIO Program Overview

Library 
Our extensive collection of documents.

Privacy Policy

Archives of the
Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 8, NUMBER 3, MARCH 1995

NEWS...
RESEARCH NEWS

Item #d95mar125

Global warming, snowfall, and sea level: A recent study that compared snowfall amounts and ambient temperature over an 18,000-year sample of ice core shows that snow accumulation in Greenland could increase more than previously thought in response to rises in global temperature. Consequently, the IPCC estimates of future sea level rise could be too low. (See Science News, p. 7, Jan. 7 1995. Also see Two related items in Nature, 373(6509), Jan. 5, 1995: "Ice Sheets and Sea Level," D. Bromwich, 18-19; and

"Dominant Influence of Atmospheric Circulation on Snow Accumulation in Greenland over the Past 18,000 Years," W.R. Kapsner, R.B. Alley et al., 52-54).

Item #d95mar126

Test of climate models: Current climate models fail to simulate the mild continental temperatures that geological data show existed during the Eocene period. A recent paper shows that more detailed representation of the surface characteristics of the North American continent could resolve the discrepancy. (See Nature, p. 221, Nov. 17 1994; New Scientist, p. 18, Nov. 5 1994. And see: "Equable Climates During the Early Eocene: Significance of Regional Paleogeography for North American Climate," L.C. Sloan, Geology, 22(10), 881-884, Oct. 1994.

Item #d95mar127

"Chilly Ice-Age Tropics Could Signal Climate Sensitivity," R.A. Kerr, Science, p. 961, Feb. 17. The idea that the tropics remained warm even during ice ages, is based on the 1976 CLIMAP study. Now there are increasing challenges to this view, and some researchers are considering mechanisms that might have cooled the tropics during ice ages as well, and that could shape the course of future greenhouse warming.

Item #d95mar128

"New Beat Detected in Ice Age Rhythm," R. Monastersky, Science News, p. 118, Feb. 25. New evidence shows that icebergs flooded the North Atlantic during the last ice age every 2,000 years or so in concert with fluctuations in air temperatures. The results provide a long-sought link between climate records in the ocean and those drawn from the Greenland ice cap, and cause experts to wonder if similar flip-flops could occur in the present climate. (See "Iceberg Discharges into the North Atlantic on Millennial Time Scales During the Last Glaciation," G.C. Bond, R. Lotti, Science, 267(5200), 1005-1010, Feb. 17, 1995)