The mid-Pliocene warm period (mPWP – 3.264–3.025Ma BP) is a relatively stable warm period in the geological timescale. The global annual mean surface air temperature (SAT) was estimated to be approximately 2–3 C warmer than present climate, the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) was also warmer, particularly in high latitudes and the North Atlantic. The CO2 concentration was estimated to exceed 400ppmv that makes it an good analogue period for the future climate change under global warming. The PlioMIP (Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project) was launched in 2008 and became a part of the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project, phase 3. Taking advantage of this framework, the latest version of FGOALS-g2 was used to simulate the climate in mid-Pliocene, so as to examine the model’s climate sensitivity and to further our understandings of the mechanisms for the future climate change. The study has been published in Geoscientific Model Development, the lead author is Dr. Zheng Weipeng at LASG and coauthors are Dr. Zhang Zhongshi at NZC and Bergen University, Dr. Yu Yongqiang and Ph.D student Chen Lin at LASG.

Numerical simulations suggest that FGOALS-g2 reasonably reproduced the large-scale features of climate of warmer SAT and SST and enhanced hydrological cycle in the tropics and monsoon areas during mid-Pliocene, which was similar to other PlioMIP models. The ENSO amplitude was weaker in mid-Pliocene, while the ENSO cycle was slightly lengthened. FGOALS-g2 also reproduced weaker East Asian Winter Monsoon and stronger EAST Asian Summer Monsoon as suggested by the proxy data. Therefore, the ability of FGOALS-g2 in simulating the warm climate during mid-Pliocene was validated by this study and it contribute to the confidence of the projection for future climate change. The mid-Pliocene simulation of FGOALS-g2 has been submitted to the PMIP3 database.