Enhanced Interannual Variability in Temperature during the Last Glacial Maximum

Abstract

Abstract Using all relevant climate experiments archived in phases 3 and 4 of the Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP3/4), we examine the interannual variability change in global-scale surface air temperature and associated physical mechanisms during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The results show that relative to the preindustrial period, the LGM interannual temperature variability increased by 20% globally, which was mainly attributed to the large-scale increase in the meridional temperature gradient, especially at midlatitudes. Larger magnitudes of change occurred in areas where the underlying surface properties, such as the surface altitude, land–sea distribution, and ice sheet extent, differed from those in the preindustrial period. In addition, the relationship between changes in the meridional temperature gradient and the interannual temperature variability became closer in the winter hemisphere. In the tropical land regions, changes in interannual temperature variability are mainly related to the adjustment of latent and sensible heat fluxes during the LGM.