Cold Extremes during Dansgaard-Oeschger Oscillations

Abstract. This paper studies the statistics of extreme cold air surface temperatures in a climate that experiences abrupt changes. We employ a CCSM4 simulation of Last Glacial Maximum conditions that exhibits rapid switching between stadial and interstadial states as data. Non-stationary linear Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) distributions are fitted to find the regions that show the most prominent changes and associate them with physical processes. The results are then compared with a non-linear model, which gives a more detailed picture of how the parameters change as a function of the AMOC strength. While different regions of the world show different extremal behaviours, many regions show an approximately linear relationship between the parameters of the GEV distributions and the strength of the AMOC within the stadial and interstadial states, with some non-linear oscillation or jump where the transition between them takes place. Physical processes such as the expansion and retreat of the sea ice and the relative changes in the strength of the currents are shown to impact the magnitude and variability of the extremes, with significant changes observed in the three parameters of the GEV. They also create teleconnections that are compared whenever possible with various proxies for the temperature of the air and the water. We show how mapping the parameters of the GEV distributions into the AMOC strength gives a way to compare results between different climate models and different climate states. Comparisons, however, need to pay heed to the dynamical characteristics of the state and the location to be meaningful.