DeepMIP-Eocene Meeting @EGU24

We had our 7th DeepMIP-Eocene meeting as a splinter meeting during EGU24 in Vienna on 16/04/24. During the meeting we presented key findings from DeepMIP-Eocene Phase 1 so far and discussed plans for Phase 2 of DeepMIP-Eocene

Schedule

Start	End	Speaker
2.00	2.15	Gordon Inglis (welcome, and DeepMIP-Eocene Phase 1 data perspective)
2.15	2.25	Seb Steinig (DeepMIP-Eocene Phase 1 model perspective)
2.25	2.40	Yurui Zhang (Large-scale Ocean Circulation from DeepMIP-Eocene)
2.40	2.55	Ayako Abe-Ouchi (Influence of orbital parameters on deeptime high latitude climate)
2.55	3.10	David Evans (The temperature of the deep ocean is a robust proxy for global mean surface temperature during the Cenozoic)
3.10	3.20	Seb Steinig (Cloud feedbacks / HadGEM3 / database)
3.20	3.35	David Hutchinson (Modelled BIOME4 vegetation outputs forced by DeepMIP simulations)
3.35	3.45	James Rae (Spicy vs Minty: dynamic deep water sources in warmer worlds)
3.45	4.15	BREAK
4.15	4.30	Piret Plink-Bjorklund (The Early Paleogene: A Glimpse of an Extremely Warm World from global terrestrial proxy analyses)
4.30	5.45	Small group discussions on DeepMIP-Eocene Phase 2

Recordings

The recordings for above presentations can be viewed and downloaded here. Note that some talks discussed non-published data and figures and are therefore not available online.

Summary

Discussion was mainly around the following topics:

Development of new biome reconstructions and how to combine models and data
Water mass structure in the deep ocean, deep water formation sites and deep ocean temperatures
Climate variability (seasonal, orbital)
Terrestrial vegetation and hydrology
Update to the Hollis paper and quantifying climate metrics beyond ECS and GMST (e.g., pole-to-equator gradients)

Your Paper summarised by AI

Overview of AI summary images created for DeepMIP-Eocene Phase 1

A common theme at EGU24 was the use of AI-generated images and summaries to open presentations. So we thought it would be great to use these tools to showcase some of the amazing work that has already been published based on the Phase 1 simulations. We asked ChatGPT to generate a summary image of each of the DeepMIP modelling papers published so far. We also asked for some lyrics summarising the main results and used suno.com to create short songs around these lyrics. Musical tastes vary, but the results definitely provide a fresh perspective on the results. So, thanks again for all the great work already published and we hope you enjoy browsing through the results below, which range from epic space opera to folk rock to hard rock anthems :).

Early Eocene Ocean Meridional Overturning Circulation: The Roles of Atmospheric Forcing and Strait Geometry
(Zhang et al. 2022)

Currents of Time

[Verse 1]
In Eocene days, the oceans wide,
Zhang maps the currents, deep and wide.
From Southern depths to Northern freeze,
Waters turn in ancient seas.

[Chorus]
Spin the tales of waters deep,
Under Zhang’s watchful eye they creep.
From pole to pole, the currents flow,
In DeepMIP’s light, the past does show.

[Verse 2]
With models eight, the story’s told,
Of warm ancient waters, bold and old.
In every model, variations found,
Where deep waters rise, and currents bound.

[Bridge]
Not just CO2, but gateways play,
In shaping oceans of yesterday.
Through Panama’s gap and Drake’s wide door,
Circulation patterns we explore.

[Chorus]
Spin the tales of waters deep,
Under Zhang’s watchful eye they creep.
From pole to pole, the currents flow,
In DeepMIP’s light, the past does show.

[Outro]
Published in tones of learned speech,
In Paleoceanography they teach.
Zhang and peers, through time they reach,
To guide our future, this knowledge we beseech.

African hydroclimate during the early Eocene from the DeepMIP simulations (Williams et al. 2022)

Rains of Ancient Africa

[Verse 1]
As carbon dioxide filled the skies,
Ancient rains told surely no lies.
African lands under Eocene sun,
Models predict where the waters would run.

[Chorus]
From equatorial to the western sands,
Rainfall patterns shift across the lands.
Williams and his team chart the course,
In Paleoceanography, they find the source.

[Verse 2]
North sees growth, the south might dry,
Under the Eocene’s warm, high sky.
Precipitation’s dance, complex and vast,
Reflecting a climate from the distant past.

[Bridge]
Dynamical changes, winds that sway,
Patterns of old, modelled to display.
Through DeepMIP’s eyes, insights we gain,
Ancient Africa’s rainfall, detailed and plain.

[Chorus]
From equatorial to the western sands,
Rainfall patterns shift across the lands.
Williams and his team chart the course,
In Paleoceanography, they find the source.

[Outro]
In the heart of science, truths unfurl,
As past climates echo in the modern world.
In pages of history, so ancient and bold,
The stories of African rains are told.

Plant Proxy Evidence for High Rainfall and Productivity in the Eocene of Australia (Reichgelt et al. 2022)

Green Eocene

[Verse 1]
Tammo delves through ancient leaf,
Eocene tales, a world so brief.
Southern lands once lush and wide,
Where now deserts stretch and hide.

[Chorus]
Rains of old, a story told,
By fossil leaves in soils cold.
Green was the world, from shore to spine,
In DeepMIP’s light, these truths align.

[Verse 2]
Australia’s heart, once wet and wild,
Forests dense, nature’s child.
High rainfall, from coast to creek,
Ancient growth at its peak.

[Bridge]
Carbon rich, the air so thick,
Life thrived with every tick.
From Nerriga to Golden Grove,
Eocene’s green cloak they wove.

[Chorus]
Rains of old, a story told,
By fossil leaves in soils cold.
Green was the world, from shore to spine,
In DeepMIP’s light, these truths align.

[Outro]
Published in Paleoceanography,
Past climates’ hidden choreography.
Reichgelt’s work, through time it peers,
To teach us more of vanished years.

Simulation of Arctic sea ice within the DeepMIP Eocene ensemble: Thresholds, seasonality and factors controlling sea ice development
(Niezgodzki et al. 2022)

Whispers of the Warming Seas

[Verse 1]
In the Eocene, with skies so gray,
Niezgodzki’s models showed the way.
Where carbon dioxide thickly lays,
Arctic ice takes on seasonal ways.

[Chorus]
DeepMIP’s gaze on ancient seas,
A world where ice bows down with ease.
Carbon dioxide’s push and pull,
Reveals a past both warm and full.

[Verse 2]
No perennial ice to be seen,
In the models of the Eocene.
From thresholds low to high we track,
In Niezgodzki’s study, no looking back.

[Bridge]
Salinity shapes the icy dance,
Models differ in their stance.
River flows and gateways tight,
Shape the Arctic’s ancient plight.

[Chorus]
DeepMIP’s gaze on ancient seas,
A world where ice bows down with ease.
Carbon dioxide’s push and pull,
Reveals a past both warm and full.

[Outro]
Published works in journals grand,
Niezgodzki’s findings help us understand.
As past climates whisper what might come,
In “Global and Planetary Change,” we see the sum.

Impact of Mountains in Southern China on the Eocene Climates of East Asia (Zhang et al. 2022)

When Mountains Rule

[Verse 1]
In East Asia’s ancient days,
Mountains shaped the sun’s warm rays.
When the Southeast peaks stand tall,
Dry shadows stretch and cover all.

[Chorus]
Mountains high, the lands go dry,
Underneath the vast, old sky.
Rain hides when the peaks arise,
Telling tales of Earth’s old cries.

[Verse 2]
No monsoon winds, no wet season,
Early Eocene had its reason.
Zhang’s work shows how it goes,
Where mountains stand, the wind it blows.

[Bridge]
Through the past, DeepMIP seeks,
Answers from the mountain peaks.
Linking old to what’s ahead,
In every rock and riverbed.

[Outro]
Mountains call, the rains obey,
From high above they sway the day.
In Zhang’s study, truths are found,
Mountains rule the ground around.

The relationship between the global mean deep-sea and surface temperature during the early Eocene (Goudsmit-Harzevoort et al. 2023)

Beneath the Eocene Skies

[Verse 1]
Underneath the ancient skies,
DeepMIP’s secrets softly rise.
In the Eocene’s warm embrace,
Deep and surface temps keep pace.

[Chorus]
Equally they sway and bend,
To the tune of changes the winds send.
In the heart of ancient seas,
Barbara finds the keys with ease.

[Verse 2]
Steady through the vast blue deep,
Temperatures their secrets keep.
Local whispers, global tales,
In ancient waters, history prevails.

[Bridge]
With a force of carbon so profound,
1,680 ppm, the past is found.
Matching proxies of days of yore,
In ocean’s depth and surface lore.

[Outro]
Barbara’s work, like an open door,
Reveals the fascinating past’s core.
In “Paleoceanography,” a tale so bright,
Of ancient warmth and deep-sea light.

Global and zonal-mean hydrological response to early Eocene warmth (Cramwinckel et al. 2023)

As the World Warms

[Plain Language Summary]
As the world warms, the atmosphere is able to hold more moisture—however, this moisture will not fall evenly across the globe. Some regions are expected to become wetter, whereas other regions will become drier. This is the basis of the familiar paradigm “wet-gets-wetter, dry-gets-drier” and is largely supported by future model projections. However, evidence from the geological record contradicts this hypothesis and suggests that a warmer world could be characterized by wetter (rather than drier) subtropics. Here, we use an integrated data-modeling approach to investigate the hydrological response to warming during an ancient warm interval (the early Eocene, 56–48 million years ago). We show that models with weaker latitudinal temperature gradients are characterized by a reduction in subtropical moisture divergence. However, this was not sufficient to induce subtropical wetting. If the meridional temperature gradient was weaker than suggested by the models, circulation-induced changes may have lead to wetter subtropics. This work shows that the latitudinal temperature gradient is a key factor that influences hydroclimate in the subtropics, especially in past warm climates.

Meridional heat transport in the DeepMIP Eocene ensemble: Non-CO2 and CO2 effects (Kelemen et al. 2023)

Meridional Temperature Gradients

[Verse 1]
Kelemen spins a tale of old,
Where Eocene winds blew bold,
Monsoon’s latent heat, we’re told,
Increased by CO2 but by hills controlled.

[Verse 2]
In the Northern skies, the cyclones ride,
Higher heat on their stride,
Eocene’s unique topography as their guide,
Across midlatitudes, they widely glide.

[Chorus]
Kelemen’s words, across the ages cast,
Telling of a world vast,
Where the northern Hadley’s heat amassed,
Yet its poleward journey surpassed by its past.

Unraveling weak and short South Asian wet season in the Early Eocene warmth (Abhik et al. 2024)

Rains of the Early Eocene

[Verse 1]
No high peaks to break the sky,
No strong winds that pass on by.
Abhik tells of a season weak,
In the Eocene, the rains they seek.

[Chorus]
Wet season short, the dry season long,
In the Early Eocene, the rains not strong.
Without the hills, without the heights,
The monsoon’s power loses its fights.

[Verse 2]
Gangdese’s shadow, mild and slight,
Could not push the rains to greater might.
A world so warm, yet arid lands,
The rains fell short of ancient demands.

[Bridge]
Abhik’s words, across the time,
Show a climate change in its prime.
No monsoon dance, no seasonal swing,
Just a gentle patter, a soft rain’s sing.