Late quaternary temperature variability described as abrupt transitions on a 1/f noise background

Abstract

We show that in order to have a scaling description of the climate system that is not inherently non-stationary, the rapid shifts between stadial and interstadial conditions during the last glaciation cannot be included in the scaling law. The same is true for the 5 shifts between the glacial and interglacial states in the quaternary climate. When these events are omitted from a scaling analysis we find that the climate noise is consistent with a 1/f law on time scales from months to 105 years.