Paleoclimate
Paleoclimate data are derived from Earth's natural climate archives, including tree rings, ice cores, corals, speleothems, and ocean sediments. Such records are used to broaden the sampling of climate variability beyond what is possible from the instrumental record. Paleoclimate data are used to place recent changes into a long-term context, to understand the causes and impacts of climate change, and to explore the behavior of the climate system under vastly different boundary conditions than the present day.
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Climate datasets
Coral geochemical records: An overview of their use as climate proxies and of available databases
Years of record
- N/A
Coral records are one of the main types of high-resolution (annual to sub-annual) paleoclimate proxies, providing timeseries of environmental conditions reaching hundreds to…
Main variables and Earth System components
Atmosphere Evaporation Evaporation-Precipitation Precipitation Ocean Salinity SST - sea surface temperature-
Formats
- ascii | HTML Table | Linked Paleo Data (LiPD) | Matlab
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Timestep
- N/A
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Domain
- Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Tropics
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Collections
- N/A
Experts contributing reviews
- Lawman, Allison
An overview of paleoclimate information from high-resolution lake sediment records: Strengths, limitations and key databases
Years of record
- N/A
Accumulated sediments at the bottom of lakes are invaluable archives of past climate and environmental change. These sediments contain a variety of physical, geochemical,…
Main variables and Earth System components
Atmosphere Air Temperature Precipitation Biosphere Pollen Land-
Formats
- ascii | csv | Linked Paleo Data (LiPD)
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Timestep
- Annual, Decadal, Irregular
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Domain
- Global
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Collections
- N/A
Experts contributing reviews
- Larocca, Laura | Broadman, Ellie