Atmospheric and Oceanic Pathways Drive Separate Modes of Southern
Hemisphere Climate in Simulations of Spontaneous Dansgaard-Oeschger-type
Oscillations
Abstract
Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events are a dominant mode of millennial-scale
climate variability during the last glacial period with most pronounced
impacts in the North Atlantic region. In Antarctica, they manifest
primarily as a muted and phase-shifted temperature signal, but recent
studies suggest an additional in-phase component. Here, we analyze the
Southern Hemisphere (SH) response to spontaneous DO-type oscillations in
a general circulation model. Compared to Greenland temperatures, the
dominant Antarctic temperature mode is inverted and delayed by
~275 years, consistent with the bipolar seesaw mechanism.
However, the leading SH atmospheric circulation mode varies
synchronously with Greenland temperatures. It features zonally
heterogeneous anomalies induced by Pacific Walker circulation and SH
Hadley cell modulations, with patterns differing notably from the
leading modes of interannual variability. Comparison of simulated δ18O
with speleothems and ice cores indicates a good agreement in the tropics
and SH mid-latitudes but some deviations in Antarctica which warrant
further research.