Dataset of Phanerozoic continental climate and Köppen-Geiger climate classes

Alexandre Pohl; Thomas Wong Hearing; Alain Franc; Pierre Sepulchre; Christopher R Scotese

doi:10.1016/j.dib.2022.108424

Dataset of Phanerozoic continental climate and Köppen-Geiger climate classes

Data Brief. 2022 Jun 27:43:108424. doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2022.108424. eCollection 2022 Aug.

Authors

Alexandre Pohl^{1

2}, Thomas Wong Hearing³, Alain Franc⁴, Pierre Sepulchre⁵, Christopher R Scotese⁶

Affiliations

¹ Biogéosciences UMR 6282, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, CNRS/UBFC, France.
² Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA.
³ Department of Geology, Ghent University, 9000, Belgium.
⁴ BIOGECO, INRAE, Université de Bordeaux, Cestas, and Pleiade, EPC INRIA-INRAE, Université de Bordeaux, Talence, France.
⁵ Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
⁶ Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.

Abstract

This article describes a suite of global climate model output files that provide continental climatic conditions (monthly temperatures, precipitation, evaporation, precipitation minus evaporation balance, runoff) together with the calculated Köppen-Geiger climate classes and topography, for 28 evenly spaced time slices through the Phanerozoic (Cambrian to Quaternary, 540 Ma to 0 Ma). Climatic variables were simulated with the Fast Ocean Atmosphere Model (FOAM), using a recent set of open-access continental reconstructions with paleotopography and recent atmospheric CO₂ and solar luminosity estimates. FOAM is a general circulation model frequently used in paleoclimate studies, especially in the Palaeozoic. Köppen-Geiger climate classes were calculated based on simulated temperature and precipitation fields using Wong Hearing et al.'s [1] implementation of Peel et al.'s [2] updated classification. This dataset provides a unique window onto changing continental climate throughout the Phanerozoic that accounts for the simultaneous evolution of paleogeography (continental configuration and topography), atmospheric composition and greenhouse gas forcing, and solar luminosity.

Keywords: Continental climate; General circulation model; Köppen–Geiger climate classes; Paleoclimate; Phanerozoic; Seasonal evaporation; Seasonal precipitation; Seasonal temperatures.