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El Niño/La Niña and Sahel precipitation during the Middle Holocene
Author(s) -
OttoBliesner Bette L.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/1998gl900236
Subject(s) - teleconnection , holocene , climatology , sea surface temperature , geology , precipitation , proxy (statistics) , oceanography , tropical atlantic , el niño southern oscillation , environmental science , geography , meteorology , machine learning , computer science
Simulations with a synchronously coupled atmosphere‐land‐ocean‐sea ice model indicate El Niño/La Niña‐like events in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean during the middle Holocene (6 ka) with similar intensities and frequencies as at present (0 ka). July‐August‐September Sahel precipitation shifts northward as expected from proxy data. For present‐day, interannual‐decadal variability of western Sahel precipitation is correlated with both Pacific El Niño/La Niña sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies and the Atlantic dipole. Teleconnections at 6 ka between Sahel precipitation and El Niño/La Niña SST anomalies are absent with tropical Atlantic SSTs asserting a dominant influence. These results illustrate potential problems with using present‐day teleconnection patterns in interpreting past climate variability from proxy data.