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Internal and external forcing of multidecadal Atlantic climate variability over the past 1,200 years

Nature Geoscience volume 10, pages 512–517 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

The North Atlantic experiences climate variability on multidecadal scales, which is sometimes referred to as Atlantic multidecadal variability. However, the relative contributions of external forcing such as changes in solar irradiance or volcanic activity and internal dynamics to these variations are unclear. Here we provide evidence for persistent summer Atlantic multidecadal variability from AD 800 to 2010 using a network of annually resolved terrestrial proxy records from the circum-North Atlantic region. We find that large volcanic eruptions and solar irradiance minima induce cool phases of Atlantic multidecadal variability and collectively explain about 30% of the variance in the reconstruction on timescales greater than 30 years. We are then able to isolate the internally generated component of Atlantic multidecadal variability, which we define as the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. We find that the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation is the largest contributor to Atlantic multidecadal variability over the past 1,200 years. We also identify coherence between the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation and Northern Hemisphere temperature variations, leading us to conclude that the apparent link between Atlantic multidecadal variability and regional to hemispheric climate does not arise solely from a common response to external drivers, and may instead reflect dynamic processes.

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Figure 1: Summer AMV reconstruction.
Figure 2: Wavelet analysis for the reconstructed AMV during the past twelve centuries.
Figure 3: The reconstructed AMV response to volcanic eruptions and solar variability.
Figure 4: Comparison of the AMV and AMO reconstructions with Northern Hemisphere (NH) temperature.

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Acknowledgements

B.Y. and J.W. are supported by the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant No. 41325008, 41661144008, 41520104005 and 41602192) and the CAS ‘Light of West China’ Program. T.J.O. and K.R.B. are supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC, grant NE/N006348/1 and NE/P006809/1). K.R.B. also thanks G. Kapur for ongoing medical support. J.L. and E.Z. acknowledge the German Science Foundation (DFG) project (Attribution of forced and internal Chinese climate variability in the common eras). B.Y., T.J.O. and J.L. are also supported by the Belmont Forum and JPI-Climate, Collaborative Research Action ‘INTEGRATE, An integrated data-model study of interactions between tropical monsoons and extratropical climate variability and extremes’. F.C.L. is partly supported by a grant from the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities and the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (Stiftelsen Riksbankens Jubileumsfond).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 730000, Lanzhou, China

    Jianglin Wang & Bao Yang

  2. Department of History, Stockholm University, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden

    Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist

  3. Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden

    Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist

  4. Department of Geography, Climatology, Climate Dynamics and Climate Change, Justus Liebig University of Giessen, Senckenbergstrasse 1, D-35930, Giessen, Germany

    Jürg Luterbacher

  5. Centre for International Development and Environmental Research, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Senckenbergstrasse 3, D-35390, Giessen, Germany

    Jürg Luterbacher

  6. Climatic Research Unit, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

    Timothy J. Osborn & Keith R. Briffa

  7. Institute of Coastal Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, D-21502, Geesthacht, Germany

    Eduardo Zorita

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Contributions

J.W. and B.Y. conceived the study, carried out the data analysis and wrote the manuscript, with contributions to the design of the study and its experiments from F.C.L., J.L., T.J.O. and K.R.B. E.Z. designed and performed the pseudoproxy experiments. All authors discussed the results, and edited and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Bao Yang.

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Wang, J., Yang, B., Ljungqvist, F. et al. Internal and external forcing of multidecadal Atlantic climate variability over the past 1,200 years. Nature Geosci 10, 512–517 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2962

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