The Evolution of Climate Over the Last Millennium
Top Cited Papers
- 27 April 2001
- journal article
- review article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 292 (5517) , 662-667
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1059126
Abstract
Knowledge of past climate variability is crucial for understanding and modeling current and future climate trends. This article reviews present knowledge of changes in temperatures and two major circulation features—El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)—over much of the last 1000 years, mainly on the basis of high-resolution paleoclimate records. Average temperatures during the last three decades were likely the warmest of the last millennium, about 0.2°C warmer than during warm periods in the 11th and 12th centuries. The 20th century experienced the strongest warming trend of the millennium (about 0.6°C per century). Some recent changes in ENSO may have been unique since 1800, whereas the recent trend to more positive NAO values may have occurred several times since 1500. Uncertainties will only be reduced through more extensive spatial sampling of diverse proxy climatic records.Keywords
This publication has 39 references indexed in Scilit:
- Climate during the past millenniumWeather, 2001
- Low‐frequency temperature variations from a northern tree ring density networkJournal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 2001
- Multiproxy reconstructions of the North Atlantic OscillationPaleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 2001
- Can we trust proxy‐based NAO index reconstructions?Geophysical Research Letters, 2000
- Surface air temperature and its changes over the past 150 yearsReviews of Geophysics, 1999
- Northern hemisphere temperatures during the past millennium: Inferences, uncertainties, and limitationsGeophysical Research Letters, 1999
- The Arctic oscillation signature in the wintertime geopotential height and temperature fieldsGeophysical Research Letters, 1998
- Seasonality in late-Holocene climate from ice-core recordsThe Holocene, 1997
- Was there a ?medieval warm period?, and if so, where and when?Climatic Change, 1994
- Antarctic Temperatures over the Present Century—A Study of the Early Expedition RecordJournal of Climate, 1990