On the origin of multidecadal to centennial Greenland temperature anomalies over the past 800 yr
Open Access
- 8 March 2013
- journal article
- Published by Copernicus GmbH in Climate of the Past
- Vol. 9 (2), 583-596
- https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-583-2013
Abstract
The surface temperature of the Greenland ice sheet is among the most important climate variables for assessing how climate change may impact human societies due to its association with sea level rise. However, the causes of multidecadal-to-centennial temperature changes in Greenland temperatures are not well understood, largely owing to short observational records. To examine these, we calculated the Greenland temperature anomalies (GTA[G-NH]) over the past 800 yr by subtracting the standardized northern hemispheric (NH) temperature from the standardized Greenland temperature. This decomposes the Greenland temperature variation into background climate (NH); polar amplification; and regional variability (GTA[G-NH]). The central Greenland polar amplification factor as expressed by the variance ratio Greenland/NH is 2.6 over the past 161 yr, and 3.3–4.2 over the past 800 yr. The GTA[G-NH] explains 31–35% of the variation of Greenland temperature in the multidecadal-to-centennial time scale over the past 800 yr. We found that the GTA[G-NH] has been influenced by solar-induced changes in atmospheric circulation patterns such as those produced by the North Atlantic Oscillation/Arctic Oscillation (NAO/AO). Climate modeling and proxy temperature records indicate that the anomaly is also likely linked to solar-paced changes in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) and associated changes in northward oceanic heat transport.Keywords
This publication has 49 references indexed in Scilit:
- An aerial view of 80 years of climate-related glacier fluctuations in southeast GreenlandNature Geoscience, 2012
- Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Air Temperature Variability: 1840–2007*Journal of Climate, 2009
- Solar modulation of Northern Hemisphere winter blockingPublished by American Geophysical Union (AGU) ,2008
- Comment on “Solar activity during the last 1000yr inferred from radionuclide records” by Muscheler et al. (2007)Quaternary Science Reviews, 2007
- Uncertainty estimates in regional and global observed temperature changes: A new data set from 1850Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 2006
- Survey of Greenland instrumental temperature records: 1873–2001International Journal of Climatology, 2002
- Causes of Climate Change Over the Past 1000 YearsScience, 2000
- Solar irradiance during the last 1200 years based on cosmogenic nuclidesTellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology, 2000
- Simulation of the influence of solar radiation variations on the global climate with an ocean-atmosphere general circulation modelClimate Dynamics, 1997
- Solar modulation of cosmogenic nuclide production over the last millennium: comparison between 14C and 10Be recordsEarth and Planetary Science Letters, 1997