Paleoclimatology

The main objective of the Paleoclimatology group is the study of the global and regional climate (mainly Europe, but other regions as well) of the past centuries and millennia, by performing model simulations and analysis of climate proxy data. Theses studies help understand the functioning of the climate system and put the recent and projected warming into the perspective of the recent past.

Reliable estimates for natural decadal- to centennial-scale climate variablity are much needed to assess whether the climatic changes during the last decades are more likely to be of natural origin, or more likely to be influenced by anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. As the observational record goes back mostly only back to the mid-nineteenth century, other sources of information on past climate variability are needed.