Solar Forcing of Regional Climate Change During the Maunder Minimum

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Shindell, Drew T., Schmidt, Gavin A., Mann, Michael E., Rind, David, Waple, Anne
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2001
• Subjects: Arctic; Climate change; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1064363; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1064363

We examine the climate response to solar irradiance changes between the late 17th-century Maunder Minimum and the late 18th century. Global average temperature changes are small (about 0.3° to 0.4°C) in both a climate model and empirical reconstructions. However, regional temperature changes are quite large. In the model, these occur primarily through a forced shift toward the low index state of the Arctic Oscillation/North Atlantic Oscillation as solar irradiance decreases. This leads to colder temperatures over the Northern Hemisphere continents, especially in winter (1° to 2°C), in agreement with historical records and proxy data for surface temperatures.