Orbital and Millennial Antarctic Climate Variability over the Past 800,000 Years

Science, Vol. 317, No. 5839, doi:10.1126/science.1141038, 2007

J. Jouzel, V. Masson-Delmotte, O. Cattani, G. Dreyfus, S. Falourd, G. Hoffmann, B. Minster and J. Nouet
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et l'Environnement/Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, CEA-CNRS/Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin en Yvelines, CE Saclay, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
J.M. Barnola, J. Chappellaz, J.C. Gallet, L. Loulergue, F. Parrenin and D. Raynaud
Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement, CNRS/Université Joseph Fourier, Boîte Postale 96, 38402, Saint Martin d'Hères, France.
H. Fischer and H. Oerter
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Columbusstrasse, D27568 Bremerhaven, Germany.
S. Johnsen and J.P. Steffensen
Ice and Climate, The Niels Bohr Institute, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
M. Leuenberger, D. Luethi, A. Schilt, J. Schwander, R. Spahni, B. Stauffer and T.F. Stocker
Physics Institute, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.
G. Raisbeck
Centre de Spectrométrie Nucléaire et de Spectrométrie de Masse/CNRS, Bat 108, 91405, Orsay, France.
E. Selmo
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Parma, 43100 Parma, Italy.
R. Souchez and J.L. Tison
Département des Sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
B. Stenni
Department of Geological, Environmental and Marine Sciences, University of Trieste, 34127 Trieste, Italy.
M. Werner
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, 100164, D7701 Jena, Germany.
E.W. Wolff
British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK.

ABSTRACT.
A high-resolution deuterium profile is now available along the entire European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica Dome C ice core, extending this climate record back to marine isotope stage 20.2, ~800,000 years ago. Experiments performed with an atmospheric general circulation model including water isotopes support its temperature interpretation. We assessed the general correspondence between Dansgaard-Oeschger events and their smoothed Antarctic counterparts for this Dome C record, which reveals the presence of such features with similar amplitudes during previous glacial periods. We suggest that the interplay between obliquity and precession accounts for the variable intensity of interglacial periods in ice core records.