A new multi-variable benchmark for Last Glacial Maximum climate simulations

Reconstruction of climate anomalies for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, ca 21,000 years ago), made by combining pollen based reconstructions (from Bartlein et al. 2011) and averaged outputs of LGM simulations from the 3rd round of the Palaeoclimate Model Intercomparison Project (PMIP, Braconnot et al. 2011), under a variational data assimilation technique. This reconstruction is designed to be used for data-model comparison, specifically against the results of PMIP4. The dataset consists of 6 variables: moisture index (the ratio precipitation and equilibrium evapotranspiration), mean annual precipitation (mm), mean annual temperature (degrees C), mean temperature of the coldest month (degrees C), mean temperature of the warmest month (degrees C), growing degree days above 5 degrees C (day degrees C). The standard deviation of these variables is also given. This dataset supersedes the version published at http://dx.doi.org/10.17864/1947.229, where an incorrect value for MI SD was used in Australia, a non-linear MAP non-dimensionalisation was used (instead of the linear one here), the background error covariance matrix was square rooted improperly and incorrect values for MI were used in central Asia.