This collaborative project aims to produce a Paleoclimate Reanalysis - a statistically robust gridded reconstruction of climate spanning the last 25,000 years - using a data assimilation technique widely used in the meteorological community in order to combine information from climate models and proxies to reconstruct gridded climate fields. The Reanalysis will be used to test hypotheses regarding the response of the tropical Walker circulation and the major monsoon systems to changing climate background states and the origin of low-frequency (centennial to millennial-scale) variability in the Earth's climate system. The specific goal is to test hypotheses regarding the behavior of the tropical climate system under cold and warm climates and to document and identify the dynamical origin of centennial-to millennial-scale climate variability.
The Paleoclimate Reanalysis will be available to the wider science community and could provide a community benchmark to benefit research across multiple disciplines. This project will support a graduate student and postdoctoral candidate as well as involve substantial undergraduate participation in the form of data collection and analysis. This project also support a new partnership with the Girl Power program to develop science education and outreach opportunities for middle school girls in a Tucson public school.