Paleoclimate Proxies

First published: 1998

Brief summary

NOAA overview of proxies used to reconstruct past climate cycles.

Article

Paleoclimatology reconstructs climate before widespread instrumental observations by using natural archives that preserve indirect evidence of past conditions. These records extend climate history from recent centuries to millions of years.

Common archives include ice cores, marine and lake sediments, tree rings, corals, cave deposits, pollen and historical documents. Measurements such as isotopes, trace elements, sediment composition, growth layers and fossil assemblages act as proxies for temperature, precipitation, atmospheric composition, ocean conditions and ecosystem change.

Proxy records are dated with annual-layer counting, radiometric methods, stratigraphic correlation and age-depth modelling. Calibration against modern observations helps relate the measured proxy to a climate variable, while replication across sites tests regional and global consistency.

NOAA’s paleoclimatology programme archives data and metadata from many proxy types and locations. These datasets are used to study natural variability, abrupt change, long-term trends and the context of recent climate change, with uncertainties arising from dating, calibration, preservation and spatial coverage.

Source details and credits

• Source / publisher: NOAA NCEI
• Source type: Data portal
• URL type: WWW
• Credits: NOAA NCEI
• URL: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/paleoclimatology