Title of article :
North Atlantic storminess and Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation during the last Millennium: Reconciling contradictory proxy records of NAO variability
Author/Authors :
Trouet، نويسنده , , V. and Scourse، نويسنده , , J.D. and Raible، نويسنده , , C.C.، نويسنده ,
Issue Information :
روزنامه با شماره پیاپی سال 2012
Pages :
8
From page :
48
To page :
55
Abstract :
Within the last Millennium, the transition between the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA; ca. 1000–1300 CE) and the Little Ice Age (LIA; ca. 1400–1800 CE) has been recorded in a global array of climatic and oceanographic proxies. In this study, we review proxy evidence for two alternative hypotheses for the effects of this shift in the North Atlantic region. One hypothesis postulates that the MCA/LIA transition included a weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and a transition to more negative North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) conditions, resulting in a strong cooling of the North Atlantic region. The alternative hypothesis proposes a MCA/LIA shift to an increased number of storms over the North Atlantic linked to increased mid-latitude cyclogenesis and hence a pervasive positive NAO state. The two sets of proxy records and thus of the two competing hypotheses are then reconciled based on available results from climate model simulations of the last Millennium. While an increase in storm frequency implicates positive NAO, increased intensity would be consistent with negative NAO during the LIA. Such an increase in cyclone intensity could have resulted from the steepening of the meridional temperature gradient as the poles cooled more strongly than the Tropics from the MCA into the LIA.
Keywords :
mid-latitude cyclones , Aeolian sand deposition , Little Ice Age , Medieval climate anomaly , North Atlantic Oscillation , Storminess , Maunder minimum , Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation
Journal title :
Global and Planetary Change
Serial Year :
2012
Journal title :
Global and Planetary Change
Record number :
2368795
Link To Document :
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