Using a cutting-edge research technique, UCLA researchers led by EPSS Professor Aradhna Tripati have reconstructed the temperature history of a region that plays a major role in determining climate around the world. The findings, published online Feb. 27 in the journal Nature Geoscience, will help inform scientists about the processes influencing global warming in the western tropical Pacific Ocean. The study analyzes how much temperatures have increased in the region near Indonesia, and how ocean temperatures affect nearby tropical glaciers in Papua New Guinea and Borneo. Researchers also evaluated the accuracy of existing climate model predictions for that region. The findings illustrate that the region is very sensitive to climate change and that it has warmed considerably over the last 20,000 years, since the last ice age.

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/sleeping-dragon-of-the-tropical-271626.aspx