SHCal20 Southern Hemisphere calibration, 0–55,000 years cal BP

Abstract
Early researchers of radiocarbon levels in Southern Hemisphere tree rings identified a variable North-South hemispheric offset, necessitating construction of a separate radiocarbon calibration curve for the South. We present here SHCal20, a revised calibration curve from 0–55,000 cal BP, based upon SHCal13 and fortified by the addition of 14 new tree-ring data sets in the 2140–0, 3520–3453, 3608–3590 and 13,140–11,375 cal BP time intervals. We detail the statistical approaches used for curve construction and present recommendations for the use of the Northern Hemisphere curve (IntCal20), the Southern Hemisphere curve (SHCal20) and suggest where application of an equal mixture of the curves might be more appropriate. Using our Bayesian spline with errors-in-variables methodology, and based upon a comparison of Southern Hemisphere tree-ring data compared with contemporaneous Northern Hemisphere data, we estimate the mean Southern Hemisphere offset to be 36 ± 27 14C yrs older. © 2020 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Description
Keywords
Carbon 14, Carbon cycle, Climates, Tropical regions, Southern Hemisphere, Northern Hemisphere, Seas, Tree rings, Calibration
Citation
Hogg, A. G., Heaton, T. J., Hua, Q., Palmer, J. G., Turney, C. S. M., Southon, J., Bayliss, A., Blackwell, P. G., Boswijk, G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Pearson, G., Petchey, F., Reimer, P., & Wacker, L. (2020). SHCal20 Southern Hemisphere calibration, 0–55,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon, 62(4), 759-778. doi:10.1017/RDC.2020.59
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