Evidence of solar and tropical-ocean forcing of hydroclimate cycles in southeastern Australia for the past 6500 years

Evidence of solar and tropical‐ocean forcing of climate cycles has been found in numerous palaeoclimate records. Numerical modelling studies show physical mechanisms by which direct and indirect solar forcing may affect climate, while there is mounting evidence of solar forcing of tropical ocean‐atm...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical research letters 2010-05, Vol.37 (10), p.n/a
Main Authors: McGowan, Hamish A., Marx, Samuel K., Soderholm, Joshua, Denholm, John
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atmospheric circulation
Atmospheric sciences
Australia
Climate
Climate change
Deposition
Dust
Earth
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
General circulation models
Geophysics
Global warming
Hydroclimate
Irradiance
Marine
Maxima
Mountains
Oscillations
Paleoclimate
Paleoclimate science
solar
Spectral analysis
Tropical environments
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Evidence of solar and tropical‐ocean forcing of climate cycles has been found in numerous palaeoclimate records. Numerical modelling studies show physical mechanisms by which direct and indirect solar forcing may affect climate, while there is mounting evidence of solar forcing of tropical ocean‐atmosphere teleconnections. This study has developed a 6500 year record of dust deposition, a proxy for regional hydroclimate variability for the Snowy Mountains region of Australia. Spectral analysis of the record provides evidence of statistically significant cycles in dust deposition of 35–43 years, 62–73 years, 161 years and 2200 years. These correlate with variability in solar irradiance and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). We present evidence to support physical links between variability in solar irradiance and change in the hydroclimate of southeast Australia and suggest that the effects of global warming and solar maxima on atmospheric circulation over extra‐tropical regions may exacerbate these impacts.
ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007
DOI:10.1029/2010GL042918