Solar Forcing of Regional Climate Change During the Maunder Minimum
Drew T. Shindell,1
Gavin A. Schmidt,1
Michael E. Mann,2
David Rind,1
Anne Waple3
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.
1 NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and
Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University, New York, NY
10025, USA.
2 Department of Environmental Sciences,
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22902, USA.
3 Department of Geosciences, University of
Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
