Evidence for climatic conditions between CA. 900-1300 A.D. in the southern canadian rockies

Available evidence for climatic conditions in the southern Canadian Rockies around the period of the Early Medieval Warm Period is presented and reviewed. Treelines appear to have been above present levels during the 14th–17th centuries and there is limited evidence of higher treelines ca. 1000¹⁴C yr B.P. (ca. 1000 A.D.). During the 13th century at least three glaciers were advancing over mature forest in valley floor sites, 0.5–1.0 km upvalley of Little Ice Age maximum positions attained in the 18th and 19th centuries. Tree-ring width chronologies from treeline sites show suppressed growth in the early 12th century and for several periods in the 12th–14th centuries. The only tree-ring chronology presently spanning the 900–1300 A.D. interval has generally wider ringwidths between 950 and 1100 A.D. suggesting conditions were more favourable at that time. Forested sites overrun by glaciers in the 12th–14th centuries have only been deglaciated within the present century.     

我国西南地区秋季干湿分类及主要类型 异常年环流特征分析

本文使用我国西南地区97站1960～2009年逐日资料,计算了考虑降水和气温的干湿指数,分析了西南地区秋季及9、10、11月干湿指数的时空变化特征。采用相似方法,构造了综合相似指数,对历年干湿分布进行分类,并给出了秋季各月各类干湿出现的概率。此外还使用再分析资料分月探讨了干湿分布主要类型异常年的大气环流特征。分析结果表明:西南地区秋季存在显著的干旱化趋势,且该地区干湿变化存在全区一致、东西相反和南北相反的特征。根据干湿变化主要模态的空间型,利用综合相似指数可以将历年秋季干湿分为全区一致偏干型、全区一致偏湿型、东湿西干型、东干西湿型、南湿北干型、南干北湿型和非典型型,共7类。全区干湿一致型出现的次数最多（不低于50%）,东西相反型次之（约25%）,南北相反型较少（约15%）,而出现非典型型次数极少（不足10%）。从季节内尺度来看,全区偏干（湿）的持续性较差,但10月份的东部偏湿区域则有较大几率（不低于50%）在下个月扩展到整个区域。全区偏干型异常年,东亚大槽偏弱或偏东,冷空气南侵困难;南海上空低层维持一个异常的气旋环流,西南地区暖湿气流输送偏弱;西太平洋副高偏强、西伸,南亚高压面积偏大,与西太副高重叠,西南地区长期受高压控制。这种异常环流形势的维持,使得该地区天气晴朗少雨,气温偏高,持续干旱。偏湿型异常年则基本呈相反的环流特征。而西南地区东、西部上空异常的垂直运动和东部低层的南、北风异常是造成东湿（干）西干（湿）型异常的重要原因。     

Reconstruction of integrated temperature series of the past 2,000 years on the Tibetan plateau with 10-year intervals

Using 1,981 pieces of temperature records extracted from a selection of tree rings, ice cores, sediments, and other materials with high-resolution historical temperature proxy data, a temperature series of the past 2,000 years on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) with 10-year intervals was reconstructed by the method of single sample correction—multi-sample average integration equations. This series shows that the warm periods mainly appeared before 235 A.D., 775–1275 A.D. and 1845–2000 A.D., while the cold periods occurred 245–765 A.D., 1045–1145 A.D., and 1285–1835 A.D. The Little Ice Age left clear evidence on the TP and its coldest period was between 1635 and 1675 A.D. The Medieval Warm Period on the TP was not as warm as that in the late twentieth century. During the nineteenth century, overall temperature tends to be warmer with a clear rising trend, and in the late twentieth century new highs broke the record of the past 2,000 years. Power spectrum analysis shows that temperature on the TP changes consistently and evidently in a 150-year cycle. This integrated series also shows clear correlations with sunspot activity and solar radiation, as high sunspot activities generally led to warmer periods, and vice versa. Solar activities and intense radiation of recent years are naturally conducive to the global warming since the nineteenth century. The combination of greenhouse gases and natural fluctuations in climate has been the main culprit behind the global warming in the twentieth century.     

Tree-ring and glacial evidence for the medieval warm epoch and the little ice age in southern South America

A tree-ring reconstruction of summer temperatures from northern Patagonia shows distinct episodes of higher and lower temperature during the last 1000 yr. The first cold interval was from A.D. 900 to 1070, which was followed by a warm period A.D. 1080 to 1250 (approximately coincident with theMedieval Warm Epoch). Afterwards a long, cold-moist interval followed from A.D. 1270 to 1660, peaking around 1340 and 1640 (contemporaneously with earlyLittle Ice Age events in the Northern Hemisphere). In central Chile, winter rainfall variations were reconstructed using tree rings back to the year A.D. 1220. From A.D. 1220 to 1280, and from A.D. 1450 to 1550, rainfall was above the long-term mean. Droughts apparently occurred between A.D. 1280 and 1450, from 1570 to 1650, and from 1770 to 1820. In northern Patagonia, radiocarbon dates and tree-ring dates record two major glacial advances in the A.D. 1270–1380 and 1520–1670 intervals. In southern Patagonia, the initiation of theLittle Ice Age appears to have been around A.D. 1300, and the culmination of glacial advances between the late 17th to the early 19th centuries.Most of the reconstructed winter-dry periods in central Chile are synchronous with cold summers in northern Patagonia, resembling the present regional patterns associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The years A.D. 1468–69 represent, in both temperature and precipitation reconstructions from treerings, the largest departures during the last 1000 yr. A very strong ENSO event was probably responsible for these extreme deviations. Tree-ring analysis also indicates that the association between a weaker southeastern Pacific subtropical anticyclone and the occurence of El Niño events has been stable over the last four centuries, although some anomalous cases are recognized.     

过去近50年全球变暖纬向平均模

Zonal mean annual temperature trends were estimated using four reanalysis and three analysis grid datasets. The trends over land and for the entire globe were estimated from 1958-2001 and 1979-2007, respectively. Estimates of temperature trends over land from Climate Research Unit (CRU) analysis data indicate more intense warming moving northward, at a rate of about 3.5ºC per century at 65ºN, then declining further to the north. CRU estimates indicated dramatic warming over the latitudes of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a localized cooling trend at 45ºS. A global estimate was conducted by comparing estimates of the reanalysis datasets. Temperature distribution trends of the reanalysis data were similar to those generated by land observations but with large bias in the Polar Regions. The bias could be reduced by comparing these estimates with those from the analysis data at high latitudes. Extreme warming trends were estimated at rates of 2.9ºC-3.5ºC per century in the Arctic and 3.2ºC-4.7ºC per century in the Antarctic for 1958-2001. Surface warming was even more intense in the Northern Hemisphere for 1979-2007, with extreme arctic warming rates ranging from 8.5ºC-8.9ºC per century, as estimated by the analysis and reanalysis datasets. Trends over Antarctica for this period were contradictory, as Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) reanalysis (JRA-25) indicated a cooling trend at about -7ºC per century, while other reanalysis datasets showed sharp warming over the continent.     

Relationship between climatic change and the nomadic southward migrations in eastern Asia during historical times

On the basis of data obtained from ancient Chinese chronicles, this study has established time series of southward and eastward migrations of the nomad people in the southern Mongolian grasslands and eastern central Asia from 190 B.C. to A.D. 1880 and found that there is a close relationship between climatic change and the migrations. We hypothesized that such a climate-migration relationship perhaps resulted from both livestock failure of the nomad people and crop failure of the Han Chinese during cold and/or dry climatic periods.     

The abnormal periods of climate in china over the past 5000 years and their causes

This paper points out that (1) there were 5 abnormal periods of climate in China over the last 1000 years, in which the frequency, the severity and the influenced area of such calamities as low temperature, drought and flood increased greatly; (2) there were 3 or 4 worse periods of climate over the past 5000 years which were more severe than the above-mentioned climate; (3) the momental effect of the geocentric synods of nine plan-ets is one of the important causes for the formation of the abnormal and worse periods of climate; and (4) from the 1960s to about 2000 A.D. China and the entire Northern Hemisphere would probably undergo another ab-normal period of climate.     

A comparison of the Vostok ice deuterium record and series from Southern Ocean core MD 88-770 over the last two glacial-interglacial cycles

Taking advantage of the fact that the Vostok deuterium (δD) record now covers almost two entire climatic cycles, we have applied the orbital tuning approach to derive an age-depth relation for the Vostok ice core, which is consistent with the SPECMAP marine time scale. A second age-depth relation for Vostok was obtained by correlating the ice isotope content with estimates of sea surface temperature from Southern Ocean core MD 88-770. Both methods lead to a close correspondence between Vostok and MD 88-770 time series. However, the coherence between the correlated δD and insolation is much lower than between the orbitally tuned δD and insolation. This reflects the lower accuracy of the correlation method with respect to direct orbital tuning. We compared the ice and marine records, set in a common temporal framework, in the time and frequency domains. Our results indicate that changes in the Antarctic air temperature quite clearly lead variations in global ice volume in the obliquity and precession frequency bands. Moreover, the average phase we estimated between the filtered δD and insolation signals at precessional frequencies indicates that variations in the southern high latitude surface temperature could be induced by changes in insolation taking place during a large period of the summer in northern low latitudes or winter in southern low latitudes. The relatively large lag found between Vostok δD variations and obliquity-driven changes in insolation suggests that variations in the local radiative balance are not the only mechanism responsible for the variability in surface temperature at those frequencies. Finally, in contrast to the cross-spectral analysis method used in previous studies, the method we use here to estimate the phases can reveal errors in cross-correlations with orbitally tuned chronologies. Received: 11 April 1995 / Accepted: 19 July 1995     

Harvest dates in ancient mesopotamia as possible indicators of climatic variations

Butzer (1958; also, Lamb, 1968) puts forward observations to the effect that about 2500 B.C. a period of increased aridity set in in the general area of the Near East, including Mesopotamia, and that rainier conditions returned after about 850 B.C. Because in the Mediterranean type of climate (winter rains) of the Near East winter temperatures and seasonal rainfall are highly correlated in a negative sense, we expect that the above mentioned period of aridity was also a period of relative warmth, whereas the period after 850 B.C. up to Roman times, was a period of cool winters. This negative correlation is thought to be due to the fact that in the Near East rainfall is usually produced in the migratory cyclones, especially close and behind the associated cold fronts which bring in cold air as well. A failure of these cyclones to reach the region in numbers, manifests itself both in reduced rainfall and comparatively high winter temperatures. In order to check on these ideas on temperature conditions, a search was undertaken of references to barley harvest dates in the literature (clay tablets) of ancient Babylonia comprising two periods: 1800-1650 B.C. (Late Old Babylonian Period = L.O.B.P.) and 600-400 B.C. (Neo-Babylonian Period = N.B.P.). It turns out that in the former, the harvest began late in March or early in April, while in the latter, it began late in April or in May, amounting to a difference of about a month or slightly more. In our own era, in what was once central and northern Babylonia, harvest begins in the second half of April or so. Thus in the L.O.B.P., harvest opened 10–20 days earlier and in the N.B.P. 10–20 days later than at present. The differences between the harvest dates of the two periods seem to be too large to be explained by changes in the barley varieties cultivated. On the other hand, the above mentioned inverse relationship between rainfall and winter temperatures supports the interpretation that the L.O.B.P. was warmer, and the N.B.P. cooler than the present era, and goes some way toward explaining the inferred differences in harvest dates.     

气候变化对水文季节性迁移的影响：以水库汛期分期和极值降水为例

气候变化影响下水利工程的可靠设计和安全运行是广大决策者、研究者和公众共同关注的热点问题。以清江流域为研究对象,首先采用模糊集合分析法对不同温室气体排放情景(A2、A1B和B1)下的逐日降水资料进行汛期分期,再通过广义极值分布(GEV)函数对各分期的极值降水序列进行频率分析。结果表明,降水季节性迁移直接影响汛期分期;3种排放情景下未来各时段(2011—2030年、2046—2065年和2080—2099年)的主汛期较基准期均推迟且有缩短趋势。对于极值降水量级,未来情景下明显小于基准期,且这种差距随着重现期的增大而增大;主汛期明显大于前汛期和后汛期,且在时段之间的差异明显大于排放情景之间的差异。