The pattern of northern hemisphere surface air temperature during prolonged periods of low solar output

Alexander Ruzmaikin

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA

Joan Feynman

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA

Xun Jiang

Department of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA

David C. Noone

Department of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA

Anne M. Waple

STG, Inc., National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, North Carolina, USA

Yuk L. Yung

Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA

Abstract

We show that the reconstructed sensitivity of the sea level temperature to long term solar forcing in the Northern Hemisphere is in very good agreement with the empirical temperature pattern corresponding to changes of the North Annular Mode (NAM). This implies that long-term variations of solar output affect climate predominantly through the NAM that extends throughout the stratosphere and troposphere.

Received 11 March 2004; accepted 14 April 2004; published 16 June 2004.

Citation: Ruzmaikin, A., J. Feynman, X. Jiang, D. Noone, A. Waple, and Y. Yung (2004), The pattern of northern hemisphere surface air temperature during prolonged periods of low solar output, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L12201, doi:10.1029/2004GL019955.