Articles | Volume 5, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-5-289-2012
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-5-289-2012
Model experiment description paper
 | 
09 Mar 2012
Model experiment description paper |  | 09 Mar 2012

Set-up and preliminary results of mid-Pliocene climate simulations with CAM3.1

Q. Yan, Z. S. Zhang, H. J. Wang, Y. Q. Gao, and W. P. Zheng

Abstract. The mid-Pliocene warm period ~3.264 to 3.025 Ma) is a potential analogue for future climate under global warming. In this study, we use an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) called CAM3.1 to simulate the mid-Pliocene climate with the PRISM3D boundary conditions. The simulations show that the global annual mean surface air temperature (SAT) increases by 2.0 °C in the mid-Pliocene compared with the pre-industrial temperature. The greatest warming occurs at high latitudes of both hemispheres, with little change in SAT at low latitudes. The equator-to-pole SAT gradient is reduced in the mid-Pliocene simulation. The annual mean precipitation is enhanced by 3.6% of the pre-industrial value. However, the changes in precipitation are greater at low latitudes than at high latitudes.