Unfortunately, these records are invariably short, of the order of centuries at best, and can be associated
with age uncertainties of 1 or 2 %.
«The reason this study is so exciting is that previous methods of reconstructing ocean heat content have very
large age uncertainties, [which] smooths out the more subtle features of the record,» said co-author Sarah Shackleton, a graduate student in the Severinghaus lab at Scripps.
Up until now, instrumental observations of the oceans have only spanned the last 100 years or so, whilst reconstructions using marine sediment cores come with
significant age uncertainties.
New CFR methods, forward models, improved age - depth modeling, and improvements in
incorporating age uncertainty will bring consistency to efforts by the regional groups, as well as benefits to the reconstructions themselves.
«The reason this study is so exciting is that previous methods of reconstructing ocean heat content have very
large age uncertainties, [which] smooths out the more subtle features of the record,» said co-author Sarah Shackleton, a graduate student at Severinghaus» lab.
This is because Marcott sets the 1940 bin to zero
age uncertainty.
Unfortunately, data and
age uncertainties in the case of archeo - and paleomagnetic data are not well determined, and the age uncertainties can not be taken into account properly in the inversion scheme.