Raimund Muscheler
Professor
Solar forcing as an important trigger for West Greenland sea-ice variability over the last millennium
Author
Summary, in English
Arctic sea ice represents an important component of the climate system, and the present reduction of sea ice in the Arctic is of major concern. Despite its importance, little is known about past changes in sea-ice cover and the underlying forcing mechanisms. Here, we use diatom assemblages from a marine sediment core collected from the West Greenland shelf to reconstruct changes in sea-ice cover over the last millennium. The proxy-based reconstruction demonstrates a generally strong link between changes in sea-ice cover and solar variability during the last millennium. Weaker (or stronger) solar forcing may result in the increase (or decrease) in sea-ice cover west of Greenland. In addition, model simulations show that variations in solar activity not only affect local sea-ice formation, but also control the sea-ice transport from the Arctic Ocean through a sea-ice-ocean-atmosphere feedback mechanism. The role of solar forcing, however, appears to have been more ambiguous during an interval around AD 1500, after the transition from the Medieval Climate Anomaly to the Little Ice Age, likely to be driven by a range of factors. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Department/s
- Quaternary Sciences
- MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system
Publishing year
2016
Language
English
Pages
148-156
Publication/Series
Quaternary Science Reviews
Volume
131
Links
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Elsevier
Topic
- Geology
Keywords
- Sea-ice variability
- Solar activity
- West Greenland
- Last millennium
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0277-3791