Tracing the Snowball bifurcation of aquaplanets through time reveals a fundamental shift in critical-state dynamics

Feulner, Georg; Bukenberger, Mona; Petri, Stefan

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-533-2023

Articles | Volume 14, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-533-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-533-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 14, issue 3

Research article

|

03 May 2023

Research article |

| 03 May 2023

Tracing the Snowball bifurcation of aquaplanets through time reveals a fundamental shift in critical-state dynamics

Georg Feulner, Mona Bukenberger, and Stefan Petri

Data sets

Simulation data for tracing snowball bifurcation on an earth-like aquaplanet over 4 billion years Georg Feulner, Mona Sofie Bukenberger, and Stefan Petri, https://doi.org/10.5880/PIK.2022.003

Short summary

One limit of planetary habitability is defined by the threshold of global glaciation. If Earth cools, growing ice cover makes it brighter, leading to further cooling, since more sunlight is reflected, eventually leading to global ice cover (Snowball Earth). We study how much carbon dioxide is needed to prevent global glaciation in Earth's history given the slow increase in the Sun's brightness. We find an unexpected change in the characteristics of climate states close to the Snowball limit.