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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 30, NO. 6, 1280, doi:10.1029/2002GL016570, 2003

Arctic/North Atlantic Oscillation signature in Holocene sea surface temperature trends as obtained from alkenone data

N. Rimbu

Department of Geosciences, Bremen University, Bremen, Germany


G. Lohmann

Department of Geosciences, Bremen University, Bremen, Germany


J.-H. Kim

Department of Geosciences, Bremen University, Bremen, Germany


H. W. Arz

Department of Geosciences, Bremen University, Bremen, Germany


R. Schneider

Department of Geosciences, Bremen University, Bremen, Germany


Abstract

The variability in alkenone-derived sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the North Atlantic realm shows that a continuous SST decrease in the northeast Atlantic from the early to the late Holocene was accompanied by a persistent warming over the western subtropical Atlantic, the eastern Mediterranean Sea and the northern Red Sea. Based on the analysis of the instrumental data and of atmospheric general circulation model experiments, we show that this variation in SSTs during the Holocene can be attributed to a continuous weakening of a Northern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation pattern similar to that of the Arctic/North Atlantic Oscillation.

Published 19 March 2003.

Index Terms: 3022 Marine Geology and Geophysics: Marine sediments—processes and transport; 3309 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Climatology (1620); 3319 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: General circulation; 3344 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Paleoclimatology; 3399 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: General or miscellaneous.


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Citation: Rimbu, N., G. Lohmann, J.-H. Kim, H. W. Arz, and R. Schneider (2003), Arctic/North Atlantic Oscillation signature in Holocene sea surface temperature trends as obtained from alkenone data, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30(6), 1280, doi:10.1029/2002GL016570.