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Title: Aerosol-forced multidecadal variations across all ocean basins in models and observations since 1920
Earth’s climate fluctuates considerably on decadal-multidecadal time scales, often causing large damages to our society and environment. These fluctuations usually result from internal dynamics, and many studies have linked them to internal climate modes in the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Here, we show that variations in volcanic and anthropogenic aerosols have caused in-phase, multidecadal SST variations since 1920 across all ocean basins. These forced variations resemble the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) in time. Unlike the North Atlantic, where indirect and direct aerosol effects on surface solar radiation drive the multidecadal SST variations, over the tropical central and western Pacific atmospheric circulation response to aerosol forcing plays an important role, whereas aerosol-induced radiation change is small. Our new finding implies that AMO-like climate variations in Eurasia, North America, and other regions may be partly caused by the aerosol forcing, rather than being originated from the North Atlantic SST variations as previously thought.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1743738
PAR ID:
10176362
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Science Advances
Volume:
6
Issue:
29
ISSN:
2375-2548
Page Range / eLocation ID:
eabb0425
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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