Solar imprints on Asian inland moisture fluctuations over the last millennium

Abstract

Solar irradiance changes are thought to play an important role in natural climate variability. How the hydrological conditions were affected by solar irradiance in westerly-controlled arid central Asia (ACA) on decadal/centennial timescales remains poorly understood because of the lack of high-quality records. Here, we integrate 1.2-year-resolution x-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanner-derived carbonate accumulation estimates with 6-year-resolution biomarker and magnetic records in a well-preserved shoreline core from Lake Manas, northwestern China, to reconstruct lake level fluctuations and potential solar imprints over the last millennium. Besides the generally confirmed cool-wet/warm-dry climate pattern in ACA, our data also consistently show frequent and substantial lake level fluctuations, resembling solar activity changes, especially during the 'Little Ice Age'. Wavelet spectral analyses of our XRF data indicate strong 8-to 16-year, 64-to 128-year and 128-to 256-year cycles, coinciding with the ~11-year Schwabe cycle, ~70-to 100-year Gleissberg cycle, and the ~200-year Suess-de Vries cycle. We therefore suggest the existence of solar imprints on effective moisture fluctuations in ACA over the last millennium, and the potential occurrence of the Schwabe cycle even during the solar minima.

Onset of frequent dust storms in northern China at ~AD 1100

“…With multiple proxy records generated in the same core from Lake Gahai, we then associate detailed dust frequency changes with regional climatic and hydrological conditions, unaffected by chronological uncertainty. This association is further substantiated with comparison between the historical dust record and total solar irradiance changes 25 26 (TSI), for which high TSI corresponding to warm/dry conditions in arid northwestern China was identified previously 17 27 . Such close inspections allow us to attribute the dust storm variability to both the strength of Siberian High and regional hydrological changes, with the later linked to vegetation coverage and dust source availability.…”

“…In the historical records, major peaked dust events occurred at episodes centered at ~AD 1200, 1600 and 1800, all corresponding to high TSI episodes ( Fig. 4b ), when relatively warm-dry conditions occurred in northwestern China 17 27 . The two independent approaches thus confirm that at centennial scales, the peaked dust events, including the onset at ~AD 1100 ( Fig.…”

Holocene Solar Activity Imprint on Centennial‐ to Multidecadal‐Scale Hydroclimatic Oscillations in Arid Central Asia

“…Some of them are correlative with cycles of solar activity (Figures b–d), such as the de Vries cycle (~205 years; Wagner et al, ), Gleissberg cycle (~88–102 years; Peristykh & Damon, ; Usoskin & Mursula, ), and Eddy cycle (~1,000 years; Abreu et al, ). A quasi‐200‐year cycle is dominant in the Baluk δ 18 O record (above 99% significance level), and it has also been detected in tree ring and lake sediment records from ACA spanning the last two millennia (Raspopov et al, ; Song et al, ). Because of its importance in both the Baluk cave and TSI records (Figures a and c), we used band‐pass filtering to extract a specific component (centered on ~200 years) which facilitates comparison of the two records (Figures e and f).…”

Moisture Changes in the Northern Xinjiang Basin Over the Past 2400 years as Documented in Pollen Records of Jili Lake

“…During the Little Ice Age (LIA: 1200-1850 CE), there was an increase in moisture from 1200 CE (Figure 5A), consistent with the A/C ratios of Sayram Lake (Figure 5C), Ebinur Lake (Figure 5D) and Harnur Lake (Figure 5E). Cold climate also recorded in Manas Lake (Song et al, 2015) and Bosten Lake (Figure 5G) during this period. This period is not characterized by uniform wet conditions.…”