Clay Tabor
Center for Integrative Geosciences and Department of Geography
Friday October 5, 12:20-1:15, AUST 434
Indian Monsoon Signals in Cave Records
Cave records suggest long-term climate variability in the South Asian Summer Monsoon (SASM) region related to changes in Earth's orbit around the sun. However, these cave records are difficult to interpret because their signals can represent several different climate responses. Here, I use an Earth system model with water isotope tracers to directly simulate the signals found in the cave records. From these model simulations, I show that a large portion of the orbital signal found in the cave records is due to changes in the amount of water vapor coming from different sources. When India receives relatively less sunlight in the summer months, most of the local precipitation sources from the nearby ocean. Conversely, when India receives relatively more sunlight in the summer months, a greater portion of the local precipitation sources from farther away. Changes in the amount of local evaporation compared to precipitation also have an important effect on the signals found in the SASM cave records.
For more information, contact: Scott Stephenson at stephenson@uconn.edu