Persistent link between solar activity and Greenland climate during the Last Glacial Maximum

Material Information

Title:
Persistent link between solar activity and Greenland climate during the Last Glacial Maximum
Series Title:
Nature Geoscience Letters
Creator:
Florian Adolphi
Raimund Muscheler
Anders Svensson
Ala Aldahan
Goran Possnert
Jurg Beer
Jesper Sjolte
Svante Bjorck
Katja Matthes
Remi Thieblemont
Affiliation:
Lund University -- Department of Geology- Quarternary Sciences
Lund University -- Department of Geology-Quarternary Sciences
University of Copenhagen -- Niels Bohr Institute -- Centre for Ice and Climate
United Arab Emirates University -- Department of Geology
Uppsala University -- Tandem Laboratory
Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology
Lund University -- Department of Geology- Quarternary Sciences
Lund University -- Department of Geology-Quarternary Sciences
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel -- Division of Ocean Circulation and Climate
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel -- Division of Ocean Circulation and Climate
Publisher:
Macmillan Publishers Limited
Publication Date:
Language:
English

Subjects

Subjects / Keywords:
climate change
unknownGreenland
solar activity

Notes

Abstract:
Changes in solar activity have previously been proposed to cause decadal- to millennial-scale fluctuations in both the modern and Holocene climates1. Direct observational records of solar activity, such as sunspot numbers, exist for only the past few hundred years, so solar variability for earlier periods is typically reconstructed from measurements of cosmogenic radionuclides such as 10Be and 14C from ice cores and tree rings2,3. Here we present a high-resolution 10Be record from the ice core collected from central Greenland by the Greenland Ice Core Project (GRIP). The record spans from 22,500 to 10,000 years ago, and is based on new and compiled data4–6. Using 14C records7,8 to control for climate-related influences on 10Be deposition, we reconstruct centennial changes in solar activity. We find that during the Last Glacial Maximum, solar minima correlate with more negative o18O values of ice and are accompanied by increased snow accumulation and sea-salt input over central Greenland. We suggest that solar minima could have induced changes in the stratosphere that favour the development of high-pressure blocking systems located to the south of Greenland, as has been found in observations and model simulations for recent climate9,10.We conclude that the mechanism behind solar forcing of regional climate change may have been similar under both modern and Last Glacial Maximum climate conditions.

Record Information

Source Institution:
Florida International University
Rights Management:
Please contact the owning institution for licensing and permissions. It is the user's responsibility to ensure use does not violate any third party rights.

dpSobek Membership

Aggregations:
Sea Level Rise