Hydrological and climatic characteristics of the caspian sea during the last glacial maximum, mid-holocene and pre-industrial conditions according to numerical modelling data

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Abstract

Components of the water balance of the Caspian Sea are calculated for a wide range of lake levels (–85– 50 m. a. s. l.) and for the two most contrasting climatic epochs over the last several tens of thousands of years: the middle Holocene (6 ka b. p.) and the Last Glacial Maximum (21 ka b. p.), as well as for the pre-industrial conditions (~1850). The eddy-resolving ocean general circulation model INMIO coupled with the CICE ice model are used for the calculations. Climate data of the INM–CM4.8 model for the indicated periods are used as boundary conditions. It is found that the volumes of river inflow required to maintain the lake level at various marks for the Holocene era are lower than the corresponding pre-industrial values by 6–7%. For the Last Glacial Maximum this decrease is 13–14% for regressive states and 20–21% for transgressive ones. Sensitivity of the results is studied to the temporal resolution of boundary meteorological data and to the locations of fresh water inflow into the Caspian Sea. It is shown that excluding the diurnal and intramonthly variability in input data leads to an underestimation of evaporation from the surface of the sea. The greatest influence on this value is exerted by the exclusion of intramonthly variability of the dynamic wind field: this leads to a decrease in the equilibrium runoff by 35%. To correctly simulate the duration of the ice coverage season, it is necessary to take into account the diurnal cycle of incoming radiation and air temperature. The melting period is significantly lengthened when using data at daily or monthly resolution, which has the greatest impact during transgressive states of the Caspian Sea. The redistribution of river mouth locations along the coast does not significantly affect the value of the total equilibrium inflow, which makes it possible to most likely exclude the uncertainty of this value associated with the lack of data on the mutual ratio of discharge of ancient rivers. In addition, estimates of hydroclimatic characteristics of the Caspian region for the middle Holocene and late Pleistocene are provided based on climate modeling carried out within the framework of the PMIP4 project.

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About the authors

P. A. Morozova

Institute of Geography RAS

Author for correspondence.
Email: morozova_polina@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow

K. V. Ushakov

Shirshov Institute of Oceanology RAS

Email: morozova_polina@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow

V. A. Semenov

Institute of Geography RAS; Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics RAS

Email: morozova_polina@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow; Moscow

E. M. Volodin

Marchuk Institute of Numerical Mathematics RAS

Email: morozova_polina@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow

R. A. Ibrayev

Shirshov Institute of Oceanology RAS; Marchuk Institute of Numerical Mathematics RAS

Email: morozova_polina@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow; Moscow

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Supplementary files

Supplementary Files
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2. Fig. 1. Model data and observations of Caspian Sea water balance components and morphometric characteristics: (а) – dependence of the Caspian area on the level; (б) – annual precipitation averaged over the sea area (mm/year); (в) – annual evaporation layer averaged over the sea area (mm/year); (г) – annual layer of visible evaporation, averaged over the sea area, mm/year [1 – piControl, 2 – AWI_piControl, 3 – INMCM_piControl, 4 – MIROC_piControl, 5 – МPI_piControl; 6 – mid-Holocene, 7 – AWI_mid-Holocene, 8 – INMCM_mid-Holocene, 9 – MIROC_mid-Holocene, 10 – MPI_mid-Holocene; 11 – LGM, 12 – AWI_LGM, 13 – INMCM_LGM, 14 – MIROC_LGM, 15 – MPI_LGM; evaporation: 16 – observations of 1901–1920, 17 – observations of 1901–1996, 18 – effective (observations of 20th century); 19 – precipitation (observations of 20th century)]; (д) – equilibrium runoff, km3/year (1 – piControl, 2 – mid-Holocene, 3 – LGM, 4 – runoff_init).

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3. Fig. 2. Hydroclimatic characteristics of the Caspian Sea for a level of +50 m. a. s. l. according to coupled experiments with the climate model INM-CM4.8 and ocean model INMIO–CICE (from left to right: PI period, mid-Holocene, LGM): (а) – the fraction of a cell covered with ice (average values for November–March); (б) – average annual surface air temperature, °C; (в) – average annual precipitation, mm/year; (г) – average annual evaporation layer, mm/year.

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4. Fig. 3. Change in the layer of visible evaporation in the mid-Holocene (а) and LGM (б) compared to the preindustrial period (mm/year) for the Caspian Sea level +50 m. a. s. l.

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5. Fig. 4. Equilibrium river runoff at different levels of the Caspian Sea in the control experiment and in experiments with various time-averaging of input atmospheric and radiation data.

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6. Fig. 5. Intra-annual variability in the average heat balance characteristics over the sea area at a level of +50 m. a. s. l. in the control experiment, with monthly average forcing experiment and with the average daily thermodynamic component of forcing (3-year excerpt from the stage of calculating the equilibrium runoff).

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7. Fig. 6. Change in evaporation (mm/month) for the Caspian Sea level +50 m. a. s. l. in the LGM (on the right) and mid-Holocene (on the left) in experiments: (а) – Var5а; (б) – Var5b compared to the basic experiments (in which the runoff was set at points corresponding to the position of the Volga mouth) for the same periods.

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