PMIP 2 @ INQUA 2007

Dear PMIPpers,

I hope that many of you are contemplating attending the XVII INQUA (International Quaternary Association) Congress in Cairns (July 28^th to August 3^rd 2007). There was a big PMIP presence at the last meeting (in Reno) and a lot of good discussions were generated ! There are several sessions that might be of interest, but now I want to flag up the symposium entitled Evaluating Earth-System Models with Paleodata.

The abstract deadline is January 31, 2007. Please do consider submitting something !!

   Best wishes,
   Sandy


Evaluating Earth-System Models with Paleodata

Convenors: Mary Edwards, Sandy Harrison, Francis Mayle, Alayne Street- Perrot, Kathy Willis.

The potential of components of the earth system to generate significant feedbacks to global warming requires that such responses be realistically modelled. Earth System Models, which incorporate key aspects of the carbon cycle and atmospheric chemistry, as well as physical land-atmosphere-ocean interactions, are now being developed and tested. Performance can be evaluated by challenging the models to simulate past conditions using benchmarks constructed from palaeo data. Thus there is a need to assemble palaeo-datasets at the continental, hemispheric, and global scales that reflect, for example, past conditions of vegetation cover, atmospheric composition and aerosol loading, and distributions of trace-gas sources and sinks. Such datasets include both well established and novel proxies; the latter could be, for example, charcoal records that indicate the prevalence of biomass burning and records of past wetland distribution. Their successful synthesis requires international efforts and generates opportunities for new collaborations. This symposium seeks contributions that:

1. evaluate the present status of large-scale syntheses of palaeodata and key emergent patterns,
2. advocate the adoption of new proxies, with a focus on the processes that underlie their utility and the feasibility of synthesis,
3. suggest improvements in chronological control, and iv) discuss issues in data- model comparison. Relevant time-scales are the Holocene, LGM to present, and the last glacial-interglacial cycle.