anu.edu.au
The aim of this workshop is to synthesise the information on climate sensitivity from climate responses to changes in forcings both today and during 4 critical episodes of major global climate change in the geological record, associated with carbon cycle perturbations.
Three major topics will be discussed:
-The first topic will focus on how geological data and knowledge of the carbon cycle relative to climate changes can help to improve estimates of climate change on centennial and longer time scales. On shorter time scales, in particular up to 2100, carbon cycle feedbacks (where people normally consider only biotic processes) are generally thought to be less important.
-The second topic will consider whether abiotic processes such as methane outgassing from gas hydrates due to warming ocean waters and permafrost reductions are important feedbacks on short time scales. Geological records provide excellent test-beds for evaluating the relationship between rapid methane releases and abrupt climate anomalies.
-The third topic aims to synthesize past instances of increasingly well-documented relationships between past rapid changes in radiative forcing and total climate response over centuries to millennia. This will help to identify in what manner initial background climate states have influenced the response to forcing changes.