Persistent Positive North Atlantic Oscillation Mode Dominated the Medieval Climate Anomaly
Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research · Scripps Institution of Oceanography · +3 more institutions
Abstract
The Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) was the most recent pre-industrial era warm interval of European climate, yet its driving mechanisms remain uncertain. We present here a 947-year-long multidecadal North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) reconstruction and find a persistent positive NAO during the MCA. Supplementary reconstructions based on climate model results and proxy data indicate a clear shift to weaker NAO conditions into the Little Ice Age (LIA). Globally distributed proxy data suggest that this NAO shift is one aspect of a global MCA-LIA climate transition that probably was coupled to prevailing La Niña-like conditions amplified by an intensified Atlantic meridional overturning circulation during the MCA.
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 62.32
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 27
Authors
6- VTValérie TrouetCorresponding
Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Hydrologic Research Center, University of Birmingham
- JEJan Esper
Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Hydrologic Research Center, University of Birmingham
- NENicholas E. Graham
Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Hydrologic Research Center, University of Birmingham
- ABAndy Baker
Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Hydrologic Research Center, University of Birmingham
- JSJames Scourse
Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Hydrologic Research Center, University of Birmingham
Topics & keywords
- Atlantic multidecadal oscillation
- Proxy (statistics)
- Climatology
- North Atlantic oscillation
- Anomaly (physics)
- General Circulation Model
- Little ice age
- Geology
- Climate action