Articles | Volume 14, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-527-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-527-2018
Research article
 | 
24 Apr 2018
Research article |  | 24 Apr 2018

Spatio-temporal variability of Arctic summer temperatures over the past 2 millennia

Johannes P. Werner, Dmitry V. Divine, Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, Tine Nilsen, and Pierre Francus

Data sets

A global multiproxy database for temperature reconstructions of the Common Era (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/3264, https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/3706, https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/5244) PAGES 2k Consortium https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.88

On the variability of ENSO over the past six centuries (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/3044) R. D. D'Arrigo, E. R. Cook, R. J. Wilson, R. Allan, and M. E. Mann https://doi.org/10.1029/2004GL022055

Blue intensity and density from northern Fennoscandian tree rings, exploring the potential to improve summer temperature reconstructions with earlywood information (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/3264) J. A. Björklund, B. E. Gunnarson, K. Seftigen, J. Esper, and H. W. Linderholm https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-877-2014

Trends in recent temperature and radial tree growth spanning 2000 years across northwest Eurasia K. R. Briffa, V. V. Shishov, T. M. Melvin, E. A. Vaganov, H. Grudd, R. M. Hantemirov, M. Eronen, and M. M. Naurzbaev https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/14188

Reconstructed Northern Hemisphere annual temperature since 1671 based on high-latitude tree-ring data from North America (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/3592, https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/3598) G. C. Jacoby and R. D'Arrigo https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00140174

A palaeotemperature record for the Finnish Lakeland based on microdensitometric variations in tree rings (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/16790) S. Helama, M. Vartiainen, J. Holopainen, H. Mäkelä, T. Kolström, and J. Meriläinen https://doi.org/10.2478/s13386-013-0163-0

Tree-Ring-Reconstructed Summer Temperatures from Northwestern North America during the Last Nine Centuries (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/14790) K. J. Anchukaitis, R. D. D'Arrigo, L. Andreu-Hayles, D. Frank, A. Verstege, A. Curtis, B. M. Buckley, G. C. Jacoby, and E. R. Cook https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-11-00139.1

A 1200-year multiproxy record of tree growth and summer temperature at the northern pine forest limit of Europe (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/19943) D. McCarroll, N. J. Loader, R. Jalkanen, M. H. Gagen, H. Grudd, B. E. Gunnarson, A. J. Kirchhefer, M. Friedrich, H. W. Linderholm, M. Lindholm, T. Boettger, S. O. Los, S. Remmele, Y. M. Kononov, Y. H. Yamazaki, G. H. Young, and E. Zorita https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683612467483

Surface air temperature variability reconstructed with tree rings for the Gulf of Alaska over the past 1200 years (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/19743) G. C. Wiles, R. D. D'Arrigo, D. Barclay, R. S. Wilson, S. K. Jarvis, L. Vargo, and D. Frank https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683613516815

Twentieth-century summer warmth in northern Yakutia in a 600-year context M. K. Hughes, E. A. Vaganov, S. Shiyatov, R. Touchan, and G. Funkhouser https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/14188

1200 years of warm-season temperature variability in central Scandinavia inferred from tree-ring density (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/19743) P. Zhang, H. W. Linderholm, B. E. Gunnarson, J. Björklund, and D. Chen https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-1297-2016

Rapid changes in the level of Kluane Lake in Yukon Territory over the last millennium (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/13785) J. J. Clague, B. H. Luckman, R. D. Van Dorp, R. Gilbert, D. Froese, B. J. Jensen, and A. V. Reyes https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2006.06.005

A 538-Year Record of Climate and Treeline Dynamics from the Lower Lena River Region of Northern Siberia, Russia (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/3902) G. M. MacDonald, R. A. Case, and J. M. Szeicz https://doi.org/10.2307/1552005

Boreal temperature variability inferred from maximum latewood density and tree-ring width data, Wrangell Mountain region, Alaska (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/3605) N. Davi https://doi.org/10.1016/s0033-5894(03)00115-7

Orbital forcing of tree-ring data (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/1003406) J. Esper, D. Frank, M. Timonen, E. Zorita, R. Wilson, J. Luterbacher, S. Holzkämper, N. Fischer, S. Wagner, D. Nievergelt, A. Verstege, and U. Büntgen https://doi.org/10.1038/NCLIMATE1589

Revising midlatitude summer temperatures back to A.D. 600 based on a wood density network (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/19743) L. Schneider, J. E. Smerdon, U. B\"{u}ntgen, R. J. S. Wilson, V. S. Myglan, A. V. Kirdyanov, and J. Esper https://doi.org/10.1002/2015gl063956

A 1119-year tree-ring-width chronology from western Prince William Sound, southern Alaska (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/14274) D. J. Barclay, G. C. Wiles, and P. E. Calkin https://doi.org/10.1191/095968399672825976

On the long-term context for late twentieth century warming (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/13708, https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/13758) R. D'Arrigo, R. Wilson, and G. Jacoby https://doi.org/10.1029/2005jd006352

Potential bias in "updating'' tree-ring chronologies using regional curve standardisation: Re-processing 1500 years of Torneträsk density and ring-width data (https://crudata.uea.ac.uk/cru/papers/melvin2012holocene/) T. M. Melvin, H. Grudd, and K. R. Briffa https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683612460791

Reassessing the evidence for tree-growth and inferred temperature change during the Common Era in Yamalia, northwest Siberia (https://crudata.uea.ac.uk/cru/papers/briffa2013qsr/) K. R. Briffa, T. M. Melvin, T. J. Osborn, R. M. Hantemirov, A. V. Kirdyanov, V. S. Mazepa, S. G. Shiyatov, and J. Esper https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.04.008

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Short summary
We present a new gridded Arctic summer temperature reconstruction back to the first millennium CE. Our method respects the age uncertainties of the data, which results in a more precise reconstruction.

The spatial average shows a millennium-scale cooling trend which is reversed in the mid-19th century. While temperatures in the 10th century were probably as warm as in the 20th century, the spatial coherence of the recent warm episodes seems unprecedented.