evidence: Paleoclimatic records of the Last Glacial reveal a series of abrupt warming events occurring in the North Atlantic region, known as Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events, with counterparts in lower latitudes1 and Antarctic climate archives2,3. Oxygen isotope (δ18O) profiles from Greenland ice cores provide master records of this climate variability4,5, illustrating fluctuations between Greenland Stadial (GS) phases with full glacial conditions and milder Greenland Interstadial (GI) phases (Fig. 1). The D-O climate variability is commonly linked to changes in the intensity of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), resulting in heat transport changes from the low to the northern high latitudes6,7. However, no consensus exists yet to explain what triggers the abrupt warmings, characterized by Greenland surface temperature increases of 5–16 °C within a few decades to centuries8. Among the proposed paradigms, mechanisms involving changes in Nordic Seas sea-ice cover9, atmospheric circulation10, or the collapse of ice shelves11 have been investigated. Recent studies suggest that abrupt climate variability can result entirely from unforced12 or noise-induced oscillations of the coupled atmosphere-ice-ocean system that alter poleward energy transport (ref. 13 and 14 for reviews).