Tracking westerly wind directions over Europe since the middle Holocene

• Published in: Nature Communications
• Main Authors: Hu, Hsun-Ming, Trouet, Valerie, Spötl, Christoph, Tsai, Hsien-Chen, Chien, Wei-Yi, Sung, Wen-Hui, Michel, Véronique, Yu, Jin-Yi, Valensi, Patricia, Jiang, Xiuyang, Duan, Fucai, Wang, Yongjin, Mii, Horng-Sheng, Chou, Yu-Min, Lone, Mahjoor Ahmad, Wu, Chung-Che, Starnini, Elisabetta, Zunino, Marta, Watanabe, Takaaki, Watanabe, Tsuyoshi, Hsu, Huang-Hsiung, Moore, G.W.K., Zanchetta, Giovanni, Pérez-Mejías, Carlos, Lee, Shih-Yu, Shen, Chuan-Chou
• Other Authors: High-Precision Mass Spectrometry and Environment Change Laboratory (HISPEC), National Taiwan University Taiwan (NTU), Research Center for Future Earth, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research University of Arizona (LTRR), University of Arizona, Institute of Geology, University of Innsbruck, Culture et Environnements, Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen-Age (CEPAM), Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) (UNS), COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA), Géoazur (GEOAZUR 7329), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud ), Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, Histoire naturelle de l'Homme préhistorique (HNHP), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Université de Perpignan Via Domitia (UPVD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut de Paléontologie Humaine (IPH), Fondation I.P.H-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Department of Geography Science, Fujian Normal University, College of Geography Science, Nanjing Normal University, Department of Earth Sciences, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Department of Ocean Science & Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle, Department of Civilizations and Forms of Knowledge, University of Pisa, Archaeological Superintendency of Liguria, Toirano Cave, 17055, Toirano, Department of Natural History Sciences, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences, University of Toronto Mississauga, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Pisa, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia – Sezione di Pisa (INGV), Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, IGAG-CNR, Area della Ricerca di Roma RM1, Institute of Global Environmental Change, Xi’an Jiaotong University
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2022
• Subjects: [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; [SHS]Humanities and Social Sciences; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03910609; https://hal.science/hal-03910609/document; https://hal.science/hal-03910609/file/s41467-022-34952-9.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34952-9

International audience Abstract The variability of the northern westerlies has been considered as one of the key elements for modern and past climate evolution. Their multiscale behavior and underlying control mechanisms, however, are incompletely understood, owing to the complex dynamics of Atlantic sea-level pressures. Here, we present a multi-annually resolved record of the westerly drift over the past 6,500 years from northern Italy. In combination with more than 20 other westerly-sensitive records, our results depict the non-stationary westerly-affected regions over mainland Europe on multi-decadal to multi-centennial time scales, showing that the direction of the westerlies has changed with respect to the migrations of the North Atlantic centers of action since the middle Holocene. Our findings suggest the crucial role of the migrations of the North Atlantic dipole in modulating the westerly-affected domain over Europe, possibly modulated by Atlantic Ocean variability.