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. 2022 Jun 27:43:108424.
doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2022.108424. eCollection 2022 Aug.

Dataset of Phanerozoic continental climate and Köppen-Geiger climate classes

Alexandre Pohl  1   2 , Thomas Wong Hearing  3 , Alain Franc  4 , Pierre Sepulchre  5 , Christopher R Scotese  6
Affiliations

Dataset of Phanerozoic continental climate and Köppen-Geiger climate classes

Alexandre Pohl et al. Data Brief. .

Abstract

This article describes a suite of global climate model output files that provide continental climatic conditions (monthly temperatures, precipitation, evaporation, precipitation minus evaporation balance, runoff) together with the calculated Köppen-Geiger climate classes and topography, for 28 evenly spaced time slices through the Phanerozoic (Cambrian to Quaternary, 540 Ma to 0 Ma). Climatic variables were simulated with the Fast Ocean Atmosphere Model (FOAM), using a recent set of open-access continental reconstructions with paleotopography and recent atmospheric CO2 and solar luminosity estimates. FOAM is a general circulation model frequently used in paleoclimate studies, especially in the Palaeozoic. Köppen-Geiger climate classes were calculated based on simulated temperature and precipitation fields using Wong Hearing et al.'s [1] implementation of Peel et al.'s [2] updated classification. This dataset provides a unique window onto changing continental climate throughout the Phanerozoic that accounts for the simultaneous evolution of paleogeography (continental configuration and topography), atmospheric composition and greenhouse gas forcing, and solar luminosity.

Keywords: Continental climate; General circulation model; Köppen–Geiger climate classes; Paleoclimate; Phanerozoic; Seasonal evaporation; Seasonal precipitation; Seasonal temperatures.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1:
Fig. 1
Overview of the variables included in each of the 28 files published with this article, using as an example the data for 120 Ma (file “120Ma_Pohletal2022_DIB_PhaneroContinentalClimate.nc”). For variables displayed in panels (b)-(f), provided files contain seasonal (monthly) data but mean annual values (derived from the 12 monthly values) are shown here for convenience. m a.s.l.: meters above sea level.
Fig. 2:
Fig. 2
Mean annual, globally-averaged continental top-layer soil temperature simulated in the FOAM model for each of the 28 Phanerozoic time slices. formula image: Cambrian, O: Ordovician, S: Silurian, D: Devonian, C: Carboniferous, P: Permian, T: Triassic, J: Jurassic, K: Cretaceous, P: Paleogene, N: Neogene.
Fig. 3:
Fig. 3
Overview of the 28 Phanerozoic time slices included in our published dataset, using as an example the Köppen–Geiger climate classes (variable “koppen”, see Table 1).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Wong Hearing T.W., Pohl A., Williams M., Donnadieu Y., Harvey T.H.P., Scotese C.R., Sepulchre P., Franc A., Vandenbroucke T.R.A. Quantitative comparison of geological data and model simulations constrains early Cambrian geography and climate. Nat. Commun. 2021;12:3868. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-24141-5. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Peel M.C., Finlayson B.L., McMahon T.A. Updated world map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 2007;11:1633–1644. doi: 10.5194/hess-11-1633-2007. - DOI
    1. C.R. Scotese, N. Wright, PALEOMAP Paleodigital Elevation Models (PaleoDEMS) for the Phanerozoic (PALEOMAP Project, 2018), (2018). https://www.earthbyte.org/paleodem-resource- scotese-and-wright-2018/.
    1. Jacob R.L. University of Wisconsin Madison; 1997. Low frequency variability in a simulated atmosphere-ocean system; p. 170.https://ftp.mcs.anl.gov/pub/People/jacob/RLJdissertation.ps.gz PhD thesispages.
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