Delayed winter warming: A robust decadal response to strong tropical volcanic eruptions ?
Climate simulations suggest that strong tropical volcanic eruptions (SVEs) induce decadal dynamical responses in the coupled ocean-atmosphere system, which protract the climate recovery beyond the short-lived radiative forcing. Here, for the first time, we diagnose the signature of such responses in...
Published in: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2013
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-000F-EDF1-4 http://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-0018-29B4-6 |
Summary: | Climate simulations suggest that strong tropical volcanic eruptions (SVEs) induce decadal dynamical responses in the coupled ocean-atmosphere system, which protract the climate recovery beyond the short-lived radiative forcing. Here, for the first time, we diagnose the signature of such responses in European seasonal climate reconstructions over the past 500 years. The signature consists of a decadal-scale positive phase of the winter North Atlantic Oscillation accompanied by winter warming over Europe peaking approximately one decade after a major eruption. The reconstructed delayed winter warming is compatible with formerly suggested mechanisms behind simulated SVEdriven climate responses, thus corroborating the existence of SVE-driven decadal climate variability. Historical climatestate uncertainty may, however, hamper unambiguous statistical and dynamical assessments both for multiple and for individual SVEs. © 2013. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. |
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