noaa-tree-13179
Forfjorddalen, Norway 1000 Year Tree Ring d13C Cloud Cover Reconstruction
Young, G.H.F.; McCarroll, D.; Loader, N.J.; Gagen, M.; Kirchhefer, A.J.; Demmler, J.C.
Forfjorddalen, Norway 1000 Year Tree Ring d13C Cloud Cover Reconstruction
2012-07-31
NCDC-Paleoclimatology
ONLINE Files
10.25921/zvgf-n290
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/13179
Investigator
G.H.F.
Young
Investigator
D.
McCarroll
Investigator
N.J.
Loader
Investigator
M.
Gagen
Investigator
A.J.
Kirchhefer
Investigator
J.C.
Demmler
earth science
paleoclimate
tree ring
delta 13C,latewood alpha cellulose,null,per mil VPDB,null,tree ring,composited|corrected,isotope ratio mass spectrometry,N,corrected for the decrease in atmospheric δ13C values due to the rise in CO2 caused by fossil fuel combustion since the beginning of the industrialization
earth science
paleoclimate
tree ring
number of samples,null,null,count,null,tree ring,null,null,N,null
earth science
paleoclimate
climate reconstructions|tree ring
cloud cover,null,null,percent,null,climate reconstructions|tree ring,null,null,N,null
earth science
paleoclimate
climate reconstructions|tree ring
cloud cover,null,null,percent,null,climate reconstructions|tree ring,filtered,null,N,20-year filter
earth science
paleoclimate
tree ring
age,null,null,year Common Era,null,tree ring,null,null,N,null
earth science
paleoclimate
tree ring
delta 13C,latewood alpha cellulose,one standard deviation,per mil VPDB,null,tree ring,composited|corrected,isotope ratio mass spectrometry,N,corrected for the decrease in atmospheric δ13C values due to the rise in CO2 caused by fossil fuel combustion since the beginning of the industrialization
earth science
paleoclimate
tree-ring
carbon isotopes
geoscientificInformation
Arctic Oscillation (AO)
Little Ice Age (LIA)
Other Hydroclimate Reconstruction
PISY
Pinus sylvestris L.
Scots pine
Scotch pine
990 AD
2001 AD
960 cal yr BP
-51 cal yr BP
Complete
68.6
68.6
15.7333
15.7333
Continent
Europe
Northern Europe
Scandanavia
Norway
Forfjorddalen13C>LATITUDE 68.6>LONGITUDE 15.7333
None
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English
DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI
National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data
DATA Center Contact
Bruce
Bauer
bruce.a.bauer@noaa.gov
paleo@noaa.gov
303-497-6280
303-497-6513
325 Broadway, E/NE31
Boulder
CO
80305-3328
USA
online
ASCII
Young, G.H.F., D. McCarroll, N.J. Loader, M. Gagen, A.J. Kirchhefer,
and J.C. Demmler. 2012.
Changes in atmospheric circulation and the Arctic Oscillation
preserved within a millennial length reconstruction of summer
cloud cover from northern Fennoscandia.
Climate Dynamics, Vol. 39, pp. 495-507.
DOI:10.1007/s00382-011-1246-3.
Cloud cover currently represents the single greatest source of
uncertainty in General Circulation Models. Stable carbon isotope
ratios (d13C) from tree-rings, in areas of low moisture stress,
are likely to be primarily controlled by photosynthetically active
radiation (PAR), and therefore should provide a proxy record for
cloud cover or sunshine; indeed this association has previously
been demonstrated experimentally for Scots pine in Fennoscandia,
with sunlight explaining ca 90% of the variance in photosynthesis
and temperature only ca 4%. We present a statistically verifiable
1011-year reconstruction of cloud cover from a well replicated,
annually-resolved d13C record from Forfjord in coastal northwestern
Norway. This reconstruction exhibits considerable variability
in cloud cover over the past millennium, including extended sunny
periods during the cool seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
and warm cloudy periods during the eleventh, early fifteenth
and twentieth centuries. We find that while a generally positive
relationship persists between sunshine and temperature at
high-frequency, at lower (multi-decadal) frequencies the
relationship is more often a negative one, with cool periods
being sunny (most notably the Little Ice Age period from 1600
to 1750 CE) and warm periods more cloudy (e.g. the mediaeval
and the twentieth century). We conclude that these long-term
changes may be caused by changes in the dominant circulation mode,
likely to be associated with the Arctic Oscillation. There is
also strong circumstantial evidence that prolonged periods
of high summer cloud cover, with low PAR and probably high
precipitation, may be in part responsible for major European
famines caused by crop failures.
STUDY NOTES: A 1010-year stable carbon isotope chronology from Forfjorddalen
on the Vesterålen archipelago of northwestern Norway was produced
from Pinus sylvestris L. (Scots Pine). Individual isotope series were corrected for changes in, the isotopic ratio and concentration of, atmospheric CO2 over the industrial period (since AD1850).
The mean isotope series was calibrated against observed percentage cloud cover from Tromsø, over the period AD1890-2001 (R2, 0.46). The mean isotope series was then scaled to Tromsø cloud cover
to produce a 1010-year reconstruction of percentage cloud cover. See Young et al. (2010; 2012) for full details.
Forfjorddalen, Forfjord, Vesterålen, Northern Norway: 68°48'N, 15°44'E
IITRDB005
GET DATA
https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/treering/isotope/europe/norway/forfjorddalen2012.txt
GET DATA
https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/treering/isotope/europe/norway/forfjorddalen2012.xls
USA/NOAA
DIF
Version 9.8.4
2019-03-01
2019-03-01