Driving force behind global cooling in the Cenozoic: an ongoing mystery

The stepwise cooling marks the long-time global climate change during the Cenozoic, particularly since the Oligocene/Eocene boundary. This climatic evolution has been punctuated by several warming such as the peak Cenozoic warmth at 52 Ma, the late Oligocene warming at ～25 Ma and the Mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum at 17–14 Ma. Concurring with the global temperature changes, the Asian paleoenvironment has been modulated by the global cooling and the tectonic uplift during the Cenozoic, but what have driven the global climatic changes remains unresolved. In this review paper, I hypothesize that a threshold CO_2 level in combination with favorable orbital configuration, ocean circulation,enhanced ice albedo and possible roles of silicate mineral and basalt weathering together facilitated the development of glaciations in the Cenozoic and the past temperature change. The synchronous variations between Earth's surface temperature and atmospheric CO_2 level may indicate that the atmospheric CO_2 content is the direct driving force for the global climatic cooling, but this hypothesis needs testing by using high-resolution geological record and paleoclimatic modeling.

Global cooling controls on the chemical weathering as evidenced from the Plio-Pleistocene deposits of the North China Plain

Major element concentrations were analyzed on the sediments of a 203.6-m core from the North China Plain near Tianjin. The chemical index of alteration (CIA), Al2O3-(CaO+Na2O)-K2O diagram and elemental ratios, such as Al/K and Ti/Na, were used to reveal information of chemical weathering in the source regions since the late Pliocene. Results show that the fluvial materials in the North China Plain were derived from vast regions, which were in the early Na and Ca removal stage and underwent numerous upper-crustal recycling processes. Proxies of chemical weathering show a decreasing trend, in parallel with the global cooling since the late Pliocene, suggesting a strong role of the global cooing in controlling the continental chemical weathering intensity.

Global cooling in the immediate future?

New perspectives regarding the possible cooling of the Earth's climate as a result of solar changes are reviewed in this paper.The major findings include:(1)solar activity is weakening to its very low level,which is comparable with the level in the early 20th century;(2)the current grand solar maximum has already lasted for eight 11-year solar cycles and might end in the coming one/two 11-year cycles;(3)a grand solar minimum might prevail in the next 100-200 years;and(4)the number of sunspots in the coming solar maximum(M)-year,around 2013,is an important indicator that needs to be closely monitored.

Linear Global Temperature Correlation to Carbon Dioxide Level, Sea Level, and Innovative Solutions to a Projected 6°C Warming by 2100

Too many climate committees, conferences, articles and publications continue to suggest a one and a half (1.5°C) to two degrees (2°C) Celsius as an achievable global limit to climate changes without establishment of any causal link to the proposed anti-warming mechanism. A comprehensive review has found instead that observationally informed projections of climate science underlying climate change offer a different outlook of five to six-degree (5°C - 6°C) increase as “most accurate” with regard to present trends, climate history and models, yielding the most likely outcome for 2100. The most causative triad for the present warming trend from 1950 to the present is identified in this paper: 1) the tripling (3×) of world population;2) the quadrupling (4×) of carbon emissions;and 3) the quintupling (5×) of the world energy consumption. This paper presents a quantitative, linear global temperature correlation to carbon dioxide levels that has great predictive value, a short temporal feedback loop, and the finding that it is also reversible. The Vostok ice core temperature and CO2 values for the past 400,000 years, with past sea level estimates have produced the sufficiently evidential “Hansen’s Graph”. Detailed analysis results in an equation for global average temperature change and an indebted, long-term sea level rise, from even a 20 ppm of CO2 change above 290 ppm, commonly taken as a baseline for levels before 1950. Comparison to the well-known 800,000 year old Dome C ice core is also performed. The best-performing climate change models and observational analysis are seen to project more warming than the average model often relied upon. World atmosphere, temperature, and sea level trends for 2100 and beyond are analyzed. A laboratory experiment proves the dramatic heat-entrapment capability of CO2 compared to pure air, which yields insights into the future global atmospheric system. Policy-relevant climate remediation, including gigaton carbon capture, zero and negative emissions and positive individual action, are reviewed and updated, with recommendations.

A Roadbed Cooling Approach for the Construction of Qinghai-Tibet Railway

Over one half of the permafrost along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is “warm" and approximately 40% ice-rich. Under global warming, the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway needs to consider climate changes over the next 50～100 years. Recent estimates indicate that the air temperature on the plateau will increase by 2.2～2.6℃ by 2050. Thus, the key to the success of the railway construction lies in preventing the permafrost underlying roadbeds from thawing. It has been more than 100 years since the first railway was build over permafrost. A frost damage ratio of greater than 30% has been reported for all the railroads built in permafrost regions. Based upon the experience and lessons learned from roadway constructions over permafrost, this paper proposes a more proactive design approach for the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. This approach focuses on cooling down the roadbed by lowering the ground temperature and is different from the passive method of preventing permafrost from thawing by simply increasing thermal resistance (e.g., increasing embankment height and using insulating materials). This “roadbed cooling" design approach is especially relevant to “warm" and ice-rich permafrost areas. A number of measures can be taken to cool down the roadbed, including proper selection of roadbed material, and configurations to adjust solar radiation, heat convection, and heat conduction patterns in and/or around the roadbed.

The Discovery of Atmosphere Cooling Engine

The earth-atmosphere system is an energy equilibrium system, including cooling and heating systems. The conception of “atmospheric heat engine (AH Engine)” was put forward very early in the research of heating processes. However, in the field of research on atmosphere cooling, there is no corresponding academic conception. Here we show how the atmosphere cooling engine (AC Engine) is discovered. The results show that there is a huge cooling center between the subtropical zone of northern hemispheres and the subtropical zone of southern hemispheres in the stratosphere, which is the result of AH engine. In the lower latitudes of the upper troposphere, there is an atmospheric heating belt that reaches directly to the surface of the ocean. In the global ocean surface, there are five heating centers and one cooling center, which are the results of Ocean Stabilization Machine (OSM). Therefore, there are 23 short-term global climate warming trends and 23 short-term global climate cooling trends of Global Mean Lan/Oceans Temperature Anomalies Index, which are actually the result of fluctuations of AH engine, AC engine and OSM, and how the mechanism works by AH engine, AC engine and OSM is also explained.

青藏高原东北缘循化盆地中中新世—早上新世黏土矿物及其古气候意义

青藏高原东北缘古气候可能受控于全球变冷、青藏高原隆升及局地地形变化的影响。为解析气候演化过程及驱动因素,本文以青藏高原东北缘循化盆地西沟剖面作为研究对象,在已有古地磁年龄约束基础上,分析了中中新世—早上新世沉积物中黏土矿物的组成和微观形貌特征。结果表明,西沟剖面沉积物中黏土矿物主要由伊利石、蒙脱石、绿泥石和高岭石组成,其中伊利石含量最高,平均为59.3%;蒙脱石次之,平均为18.2%,绿泥石平均含量为12.3%,高岭石平均含量为10.2%。根据剖面中黏土矿物含量和比值的变化特征,结合循化盆地西沟剖面的沉积速率、孢粉记录、有机质碳同位素和沉积岩地球化学比值,并与深海氧同位素值(δ^(18)O)变化曲线对比,将循化盆地14.6~5.0 Ma气候环境演化划分为3个阶段:14.6~12.7 Ma,气候干冷期,与北半球冰盖扩展引发的全球性降温事件有关;12.7~8.0 Ma,气候相对温暖湿润期,可能与循化盆地周围山体隆升有关,即积石山在~12.7 Ma隆升至临界高度,成为西风带输送水汽的地形屏障,使得循化盆地内的降水增强;8.0~5.0 Ma,气候再次转向干冷期,该阶段气候的干旱化对应于青藏高原在8 Ma左右的快速隆升,高原进一步的隆升阻碍东亚季风西风带的暖湿气流向内陆的输送,从而引起区域干旱化。

An Optimal Cooling Schedule Using a Simulated Annealing Based Approach

Simulated annealing (SA) has been a very useful stochastic method for solving problems of multidimensional global optimization that ensures convergence to a global optimum. This paper proposes a variable cooling factor (VCF) model for simulated annealing schedule as a new cooling scheme to determine an optimal annealing algorithm called the Powell-simulated annealing (PSA) algorithm. The PSA algorithm is aimed at speeding up the annealing process and also finding the global minima of test functions of several variables without calculating their derivatives. It has been applied and compared with the SA algorithm and Nelder and Mead Simplex (NMS) methods on Rosenbrock valleys in 2 dimensions and multiminima functions in 3, 4 and 8 dimensions. The PSA algorithm proves to be more reliable and always able to find the optimum or a point very close to it with minimal number of iterations and computational time. The VCF compares favourably with the Lundy and Mees, linear, exponential and geometric cooling schemes based on their relative cooling rates. The PSA algorithm has also been programmed to run on android smartphone systems (ASS) that facilitates the computation of combinatorial optimization problems.

充水式潜水电机温度场仿真分析

为了避免充水式潜水电机在运行过程中局部过热导致绝缘失效,造成匝间短路故障的问题,提高电机运行的可靠性,以一台500k W充水式潜水电机为例,搭建了充水式潜水电机包括冷却器、外部水道、吸水罩在内的三维全域温度场仿真模型。模型对定子槽内部分进行了简化的同时考虑了定子槽内冷却水的流通,进一步提高了温度场仿真的精度。最后,对充水式潜水电机内外循环散热过程进行了仿真分析,并通过搭建充水式潜水电机试验平台对温度场仿真结果进行了验证。

风冷柴油机高负荷轴流冷却风扇气动优化

针对某型风冷柴油机的具有负预旋前置导叶的冷却风扇,考虑导叶和转子的耦合效应,基于多项式代理模型和第二代非支配排序遗传算法实施了冷却风扇多目标气动优化。优化后的效率和全压在近失速工况分别提升1.19%、4.78%,在设计工况分别提高0.29%、3.16%。采用Sobol全局敏感性分析辨识了关键设计变量,结合优化前后流场变化,获得了风扇气动性能提升的流动机理:导叶叶根安装角的减小和转子叶根安装角的增大,共同减小了转子进口攻角,从而增大风扇等熵效率,并弥补了因欧拉功减小所致的全压降低;转子叶顶安装角减小,在削弱叶根与叶顶扩压不平衡度的同时补偿了全压的损失。

青藏高原冰期环境与冰期全球降温

根据青藏高原及其它地区的降温证据和降温条件下的环境变化模拟，讨论了青藏高原冰期环境变化及机制问题。从模拟结果看，在７～９℃降温条件下，高原冰雪带面积可占高原面积的１／５到１／２。考虑到降温条件下雪盖反射引起的高原冷却所起的正反馈作用，冰期高原上并不排除从山谷冰川发育较大冰盖的可能性。不管冰期高原上有无大面积的冰盖，青藏高原冰期环境出现大的变化是无疑问的。这种变化对冰期季风变化乃至全球气候变化的影响可能是深刻的。

临夏盆地新生代沉积物粒度记录与亚洲内陆干旱化

临夏盆地毛沟剖面高分辨率粒度记录研究表明,29-7.4Ma间,临夏盆地的古气候一直保持相对稳定,而其中短暂的沉积相的改变是盆地对该期间青藏高原构造隆升事件的响应;从7.4Ma开始,流域外的风尘物质开始逐步被带人盆地,并经过了6.4Ma和5.3Ma的两次加速过程,揭示了我国西北内陆干旱气候可能从7.4Ma左右开始,且在6.4Ma和5.3Ma左右经过两次加强.通过与青藏高原构造隆升事件记录和全球气候记录对比。揭示高原在9-7Ma开始的逐步隆升和期后的阶段性加速隆升以及同期开始的全球变冷,尤其北极冰盖的形成和扩张可能是亚洲内陆干旱化的重要驱动机制.

晚新生代亚洲干旱气候发展与全球变冷联系的风尘沉积证据

在干旱气候背景下常常有风尘物质的释放和传输,风尘沉积被认为是干旱环境变化良好的地质记录。在亚洲中部和中国北方,大面积的干旱区被沙漠戈壁覆盖,这些地区是粉尘物质的重要源地,释放的风尘物质影响局地和区域环境,并通过参与生物地球化学循环等影响更大空间尺度的气候变化。因此,亚洲中部干旱气候的形成和演化以及发展趋势一直受到重视。长期以来,关于晚新生代亚洲中部干旱气候发展的驱动机制至少有两种解释:一是青藏高原的隆升控制着亚洲中部的干旱化过程,随着高原的阶段性隆升亚洲干旱气候逐步增强;二是晚新生代全球变冷直接驱动着亚洲变干,全球变冷是主导因素。中国黄土高原及其周边地区堆积的黄土-红粘土序列是指示亚洲干旱化过程良好的地质记录,通过对新获得的风尘堆积记录的分析,发现在晚新生代中国风尘堆积的时空演化与全球变冷有较好的对应,全球变冷可以促使亚洲中部干旱气候发展并加强粉尘活动,而青藏高原隆升的幅度和时间还不清楚,进而认为是全球变冷而不是青藏高原隆升直接驱动亚洲内陆的阶段性变干。基于这些结果,我们认为以前关于青藏高原隆升影响全球气候的结论可能高估了青藏高原在地球环境演化中的作用,关于高原隆升直接驱动亚洲干旱化的结论还需要检验。

始新世-渐新世气候转变研究进展

始新世—渐新世(E—O)气候转变(34Ma前后)是新生代气候演化过程中最显著的变冷事件之一,标志着地球气候由"温室"进入"冰室"。这一转变伴随着地球环境的一系列重大变化,对于研究新生代气候变冷的驱动机制、区域气候对全球重大气候事件的响应方式、重大气候事件对生态环境及生物演替的影响等具有重要意义。近年来地质记录和气候模拟在E—O转变研究上取得了一系列重要进展:①不同纬度区的地质记录揭示出这一转变伴随着全球性的显著降温,指示其触发因素是全球性的;②气候模拟研究揭示出大气CO2浓度降低及与之联系的全球碳循环变化是导致这一转变的主因,否定了传统认为的环南极流形成导致E—O气候变冷的假说;③深海沉积记录揭示出这一转变过程持续400～500ka,表现为全球降温和南极冰盖形成先后两阶段变化;④海—陆气候记录的对比初步揭示出陆地区域的干旱化可能主要与全球降温(对应于E—O转变的第一阶段)相关。当前对E—O气候转变的研究还存在地质记录分辨率不够高、模拟结果与地质记录不完全吻合、陆地记录相对较少等方面的不足。更精确的大气CO2浓度和温度的重建、更多高分辨率海—陆气候记录的研究以及古气候数值模拟的改进有望进一步揭示出E—O转变过程中气候系统各要素的变化特征和相互关系,为更深入认识这一转变的驱动机制提供依据。

“冷却路基”方法在青藏铁路上的应用

青藏铁路穿越550 km多年冻土,其中约一半为高温多年冻土,其年平均地温为0^-1℃.青藏铁路是百年大计,必须考虑未来50~100 a的气候变化.在全球变暖的背景下,青藏铁路高温冻土段的建设必须改变单纯依靠热阻(增加路堤高度、采用保温材料等)的消极“保”温方法,而改用“冷却路基”的积极“降”温措施.青藏铁路的建设采用了一整套“冷却路基”的方法:通过遮阳板调控辐射;通过通风管、热管和气冷路堤调控对流;通过“热半导体”材料调控传导;通过这些调控方式的组合,加强冷却效果.这些方法均可有效地降低路基下多年冻土的地温,保证青藏铁路路基的稳定.

始新统—渐新统界线全球变冷事件在柴达木盆地中的记录

以高分辨率磁性地层学为基础,精确地厘定了柴达木盆地西北缘红三旱剖面上、下干柴沟组沉积地层的时代、沉积速率,揭示出36Ma前后柴达木盆地经历了一次短暂的构造活动引起的沉积速率增大,与60～40Ma期间印度板块与欧亚大陆碰撞造成阿尔金断裂再次强烈活化,促使柴达木盆地西北缘山脉形成紧密相关。综合分析沉积物的岩相学、砂岩成分、稳定同位素等与始新统—渐新统界线全球变冷事件的相关性,表明该地区的沉积物记录了始新统—渐新统界线全球变冷事件。

新生代全球变冷与青藏高原隆升的关系

文中综合分析可以影响新生代全球变冷的四种原因，提出青藏隆升对新生代大气ＣＯ２浓度降低起主导作用，对新生代全球气温的降低起关键控制作用。这种作用是通过青藏高原隆升加剧全球硅酸盐岩和碳酸盐岩的化学风化、有机碳埋藏、植物的光合作用来实现的。而且，青藏高原隆升有可能同洋流改变和行星轨道参数变化于第三纪末至第四纪共同对新生代全球变冷起控制作用。因此，目前首先解决的科学目标应该是：精确刻划青藏高原隆升时代和幅度，并确定青藏高原隆升对新生代全球变冷的贡献，确定一种以青藏高原隆升为主导作用的控制新生代全球变冷的综合模式。

全球变暖与变冷利弊分析

在联合国下属的政府间气候变化专门委员会(IPCC)的4次评估报告影响下,全球变暖达到前所未有家喻户晓的程度.各国人民似乎对"气候变暖"有谈虎色变的感觉.只要是灾难,不论水灾还是旱灾,不管是降温的雪灾还是高温的热浪,各国媒体均将这些灾害与"气候变暖"紧密联系起来,IPCC第四次报告也是如此.气候真的变暖了吗?真的那么严重变暖了吗?气候变暖真的给人类带来的只是可怕灾难而没有益处吗?水灾与旱灾是一对矛盾的2个方面,如何都能够由"全球变暖"一个因素所导致?地质记录表明,气候冷暖波动是地球气候变化一般形式,过去在人类能够影响大气二氧化碳含量以前,地球气候就是一直在不断地冷暖变化着的.驱动地球冷暖变化的主要因素是地球接收太阳辐射量的变化.不变的气候是短期的,是暂时的,而变化的气候却是长期和永恒的.持续了约550年变冷小冰期于1850年结束,随后进入暖期则是正常的自然过程.人类活动最大可能只是叠加了变暖的影响.本研究综合对比分析全球变暖和全球变冷2种气候变化所产生的一系列后果,认为全球变暖给人类带来结果是利大于弊.

全球平流层下部降温及其对纬向风的影响

利用NCEP／NCAR再分析资料，结合HAEOE的臭氧和甲烷卫星观测资料，分析100～50hPa的平流层下部温度变率及其与微量气体和平均纬向风的关系。结果表明，全球平流层下部大气温度自1948年至今总体呈下降趋势，而近十几年，全球平流层下部温度下降更加显著。热带和低纬甲烷的增长可能是其降温的一个重要原因。此外，由于平流层下部温度变率的经向不均匀性，同时还会引起该地区平均纬向风的变化。

Paleoclimatic and provenance implications of magnetic parameters from the Miocene sediments in the Subei Basin

Thick sediments from foreland basins usually provide valuable information for understanding the relationships between mountain building,rock denudation,and sediment deposition.In this paper,we report environmental magnetic measurements performed on the Miocene sediments in the Subei Basin,northeastern Tibetan Plateau.Our results show two different patterns.First,the bulk susceptibility and SIRM,ARM,and HIRM mainly reflect the absolute-concentration of magnetic minerals;all have increased remarkably since 13.7 Ma,related to provenance change rather than climate change.Second,the ratios of IRM100mT/SIRM,IRM100mT/IRM30mT,and IRM100mT/IRM60mT,together with the redness and S ratio,reflect the relative-concentration of hematite,being climate-dependent.Their vertical changes correlate in general with the long-term Miocene climatic records of marine oxygen isotope variations,marked by the existence of higher ratios between 17 and 14 Ma.This may imply that global climate change,rather than uplift of the Tibetan Plateau,played a dominant role in the long-term climatic evolution of the Subei area from the early to middle Miocene.