Equation 5 · Comparing the Main Approaches to Earth Systems and Climate Dynamics
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Symbol E
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Symbol t
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The paleoclimate record measures at discrete points in time — wherever an ice layer happens to have trapped and preserved bubbles cleanly — rather than continuously, and the temporal resolution degrases with depth as layers compress and diffuse; a single ice sample can represent an averaged interval of years to centuries depending on accumulation rate and depth, a resolution loss with no instrumental equivalent. It cannot measure E(t) or the ocean and land flux terms directly at all; those are inferred from the shape of the concentration curve itself combined with independent proxies for ocean circulation and terrestrial productivity, compounding uncertainty rather than…
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The paleoclimate record measures at discrete points in time — wherever an ice layer happens to have trapped and preserved bubbles cleanly — rather than continuously, and the temporal resolution degrases with depth as layers compress and diffuse; a single ice sample can represent an averaged interval of years to centuries depending on accumulation rate and depth, a resolution loss with no instrumental equivalent. It cannot measure E(t) or the ocean and land flux terms directly at all; those are inferred from the shape of the concentration curve itself combined with independent proxies for ocean circulation and terrestrial productivity, compounding uncertainty rather than resolving it directly.
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