The project aim was to develop process-based computer simulations of the dispersal of Homo erectus out of Africa. This involved developing realistic constraints on the patterns of vegetation and the effects of changes in global sea level. It was assumed that this migration out of Africa could be investigated through the paradigm of a single migration event, starting around 2 millions of years ago and arriving in Dmanisi around 1.8 millions of years ago. The data archived here consists of the vegetation patterns used in constructing the simulations and the patterns of climate variability used to constrain the variations in sea level and vegetation change. From these data it is possible to reproduce the simulation results. Simulation results are available from J.K. Hughes, A. Haywood, S.J. Mithen, B.W. Sellwood, P.J. Valdes (In Press) Investigating Early Hominin Dispersal Patterns : developing a framework for climate data integration. Journal Of Human Evolution.

The International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP) has the lead role in addressing land-atmosphere interactions - process modelling, data retrieval algorithms, field experiment design and execution, and the development of global data sets. The ISLSCP II dataset contains comprehensive data over the 10 year period from 1986 to 1995, from the International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP). The ISLSCP II datasets are compiled in four key areas: land cover, hydrometeorlolgy, radiation and soils. They are mapped to consistent grids (0.5 x 0.5 degrees for topography, 1 x 1 degrees for meteorological parameters). Some data have a grid size of 0.25 x 0.25 degrees. The temporal resolution for most data sets is monthly (however a few are at finer resolution - 3 hourly). This dataset is public. ISLSCP is one of several projects of the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX), and has the lead role in addressing land-atmosphere interactions - process modelling, data retrieval algorithms, field experiment design and execution, and the development of global data sets. ISLSCP was established in 1983 under the United Nation's Environmental Programme to promote the use of satellite data for the global land surface data sets needed for climate studies. In 1994, ISLSCP produced a five-volume CD-ROM collection of global data sets to support energy, water and biogeochemical cycling studies, covering 1987 - 1988 - the ISLSCP I Initiative. The ISLSCP I data sets are available via the BADC ISLSCP I page. The ISLSCP working group meet regularly to assist Goddard Space Flight Center staff to coordinate production and publication of the various data sets in the data collection.

The Coupled Ocean Atmosphere and European Climate (COAPEC) is a NERC thematic programme designed to examine the variability of the Earth's climate. The goal of COAPEC is to determine the impact on climate, especially European climate, of the coupling between the Atlantic Ocean and the atmosphere. The British Atmospheric Data Centre (BADC) is the primary distribution data centre for COAPEC. This dataset contains adjusted climatology data from the Southampton Oceanographic Centre (SOC).

The Coupled Ocean Atmosphere and European Climate (COAPEC) is a NERC thematic programme designed to examine the variability of the Earth's climate. The goal of COAPEC is to determine the impact on climate, especially European climate, of the coupling between the Atlantic Ocean and the atmosphere. The British Atmospheric Data Centre (BADC) is the primary distribution data centre for COAPEC. This dataset contains climatology data from the Southampton Oceanographic Centre (SOC).

The International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project was established in 1983 under the United Nation's Environmental Programme to promote the use of satellite data for the global land surface data sets needed for climate studies. This CD-ROM set contains the Initiative I data collection. The collection four areas : land cover, hydro-meteorology, radiation, and soils, spanning the 24 month period 1987-1988. All but one are mapped to a common spatial resolution and grid (1 degree x 1 degree). Temporal resolution for most datasets is monthly; however, a few are at a finer resolution (e.g., 6-hourly). The data within the four areas are organized into five groups within this collection: vegetation, Hydrology and Soils, Snow, Ice and Oceans, Radiation and Clouds, and Near-Surface Meteorology. This dataset collection is public. While ISLSCP Inititative I covers 2 years (1987 and 1988), ISLSCP Inititative II spans a 10-year period for 1986 to 1995.

Collection of North Pacific core-top foraminifera census data. Grant abstract: The geological record offers an invaluable window into the different ways earth's climate can operate. The most recent large-scale changes in earth's climate, prior to modern climate change, were the Pleistocene glacial cycles, which feature growth and disintegration of large ice sheets, rapid shifts in major rain belts, and abrupt changes in ocean circulation. Changes in atmospheric CO2 concentrations, reconstructed from air bubbles in ice cores, are intimately linked with these ice age climate events. Indeed the close coupling of CO2 and temperature over glacial-interglacial cycles has become an iconic image in climate science, a poster child for the importance of CO2 in climate, and the natural template against which to compare current man-made CO2 rise. However despite the high profile of glacial-interglacial CO2 change, we still don't fully understand its cause. The leading hypotheses for glacial CO2 change involve increased CO2 uptake by the ocean during ice ages, which is vented to the atmosphere during deglaciation. However despite decades of work these hypotheses have had few direct tests, due to a lack of data on CO2 storage in the glacial ocean. One of the most glaring holes in our understanding of ice age CO2 and climate change is the behaviour of the Pacific. This basin contains half of global ocean volume, and ~30 times more CO2 than the atmosphere, and so its behaviour will have global impact. It has also recently been suggested that the North Pacific may play an active role in deglacial CO2 rise, with local deep water formation helping to release CO2 from the deep ocean to the atmosphere. If correct, this hypothesis provides a new view of Earth's climate system, with deep water able to form in each high latitude basin in the recent past, and the North Pacific potentially playing a pivotal role in deglaciation. However few data exist to test either the long-standing ideas on the Pacific's role in glacial CO2 storage, nor the more recent hypothesis that North Pacific deep water contributed to rapid deglacial CO2 rise. Given the size of the Pacific CO2 reservoir, our lack of knowledge on its behaviour is a major barrier to a full understanding of glacial-interglacial CO2 change and the climate of the ice ages. This proposal aims to transform our understanding of ice age CO2 and climate change, by investigating how the deep North Pacific stored CO2 during ice ages, and released it back to the atmosphere during deglaciations. We will use cutting-edge geochemical measurements of boron isotopes in microfossil shells (which record the behaviour of CO2 in seawater) and radiocarbon (which records how recently deep waters left the surface ocean), on recently collected samples from deep ocean sediment cores. By comparing these new records to other published data, we will be able to distinguish between different mechanisms of CO2 storage in the deep Pacific, and to test the extent of North Pacific deep water formation and CO2 release during the last deglaciation. We will also improve the techniques used to make boron isotope measurements, and add new constraints on the relationship between boron isotopes and seawater CO2 chemistry, which will help other groups using this technique to study CO2 change. To help us understand more about the mechanisms of changes in CO2 and ocean circulation, and provide synergy with scientists in other related disciplines, we will compare our data to results from earth system models, and collaborate with experts on nutrient cycling and climate dynamics. Our project will ultimately improve understanding of CO2 exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere, which is an important factor for predicting the path of future climate change.

The datasets consist of a spreadsheets containing sporomorph and biomarker data for 145 samples from Eocene sediments recovered by Integrated Ocean Drilling Programme Expedition 318. We studied palynology (pollen and dinocysts) and palaeothermometry based on Glycerol Dialkyal Glycerol Tetraethers (GDGTs) to a sedimentary record from the Wilkes Land margin, East Antarctica, recovered by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP Expedition 318 Site U1356). These data sets provide the framework for a terrestrial climate reconstruction for the early Eocene of Antarctica. Further details of the data and their interpretation may be found in Pross et al. (2012), doi:10.1038/nature11300 and Bijl et al. (2013), PNAS, doi/10.1073/pnas.1220872110 The associated NERC grant is NE/I00646X/1 and NE/I00646X/2.

Temperature reconstructions indicate that the Pliocene was ~3 degrees C warmer globally than today, and several recent reconstructions of Pliocene atmospheric CO2 indicate that it was above pre-industrial levels and similar to those likely to be seen this century. However, many of these reconstructions have been of relatively low temporal resolution, meaning that these records may have failed to capture variations associated with the 41 Kyr glacial-interglacial cycles thought to operate in the Pliocene. These data represent new, high temporal resolution alkenone carbon isotope based record of pCO2 spanning 0 to 0.2 and 2.6 to 3.3 million years ago from ODP Site 999 (supplementing our other data repository focused on 2.8 to 3.3 million years ago). Our record allows a) direct comparison of alkenone-derived pCO2 from the Pleistocene to that of the Pliocene and b) comparison of the former to the ice core record. The raw data are sea surface temperature estimates from the Uk'37 proxy, foraminiferal and alkenone d13C values, from which carbon isotope fractionation during photosynthesis (ep) can be calculated. Using nutrient concentrations (growth rate correction) and SSTs, these ep values can be converted into [CO2(aq)] which in turn can be used to calculate pCO2.

General circulation model (HadCM3) output of the study by Matero et al. (2017) “The 8.2 ka cooling event caused by Laurentide ice saddle collapse. Data has been processed into netCDF4 - timeseries, and includes the following variables at model resolution: ocean temperature, ocean salinity, precipitation, air temperature at 2m height, depth of the oceanic mixed layer, sea ice concentration and meridional overturning circulation strength. The atmosphere component of the model has a horizontal resolution of 2.5° x 3.75° with 19 unevenly spaced vertical layers. The ocean component has a horizontal resolution of 1.25° x 1.25° with 20 unevenly spaced vertical layers. For more information see published paper, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2017.06.011

This dataset consists of reconstructions of daily groundwater levels for eight boreholes in Burkina Faso. Data for each borehole is provided in an individual csv file, with reconstructed groundwater level time series reported in metres above sea level (GWL, mASL). The groundwater level reconstructions were derived in 2019 as a part of the BRAVE project (NE/M008827/1 and NE/M008983/1) to develop an improved understanding of temporal variability in groundwater levels in sub-Saharan Africa. The reconstructions were derived using the lumped conceptual groundwater model AquiMod. Observed groundwater level time series for the eight boreholes were modelled using AquiMod, and the calibrated models were used with historic precipitation and potential evapotranspiration data to derive the reconstructions. The length of the time series of reconstructed groundwater levels varies between the boreholes due to differences in the length of the precipitation time series used to derive the reconstructions. Full details of this dataset are reported by Ascott et al. (2020). Ascott, M.J., Macdonald, D.M.J., Black, E., Verhoef, A., Nakohoun, P., Tirogo, J., Sandwidi, W.J.P., Bliefernicht, J., Sorensen, J.P.R., Bossa, A.Y., 2020. In Situ Observations and Lumped Parameter Model Reconstructions Reveal Intra-Annual to Multidecadal Variability in Groundwater Levels in Sub-Saharan Africa. Water Resour. Res., 56(12): e2020WR028056. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR028056