Tracking westerly wind directions over Europe since the middle Holocene
Journal
Nature communications
Journal Volume
13
Journal Issue
1
Date Issued
2022-12
Author(s)
Hu, Hsun-Ming
Trouet, Valerie
Spötl, Christoph
Tsai, Hsien-Chen
Chien, Wei-Yi
Sung, Wen-Hui
Michel, Véronique
Yu, Jin-Yi
Valensi, Patricia
Jiang, Xiuyang
Duan, Fucai
Wang, Yongjin
Mii, Horng-Sheng
Chou, Yu-Min
Wu, Chung-Che
Starnini, Elisabetta
Zunino, Marta
Watanabe, Takaaki K
Watanabe, Tsuyoshi
Hsu, Huang-Hsiung
Moore, G W K
Zanchetta, Giovanni
Pérez-Mejías, Carlos
Lee, Shih-Yu
Abstract
The variability of the northern westerlies has been considered as one of the key elements for modern and past climate evolution. Their multiscale behavior and underlying control mechanisms, however, are incompletely understood, owing to the complex dynamics of Atlantic sea-level pressures. Here, we present a multi-annually resolved record of the westerly drift over the past 6,500 years from northern Italy. In combination with more than 20 other westerly-sensitive records, our results depict the non-stationary westerly-affected regions over mainland Europe on multi-decadal to multi-centennial time scales, showing that the direction of the westerlies has changed with respect to the migrations of the North Atlantic centers of action since the middle Holocene. Our findings suggest the crucial role of the migrations of the North Atlantic dipole in modulating the westerly-affected domain over Europe, possibly modulated by Atlantic Ocean variability.
SDGs
Type
journal article