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Increase in the Asian Southwest Monsoon During the Past Four Centuries
David M. Anderson,1*Jonathan T. Overpeck,2Anil K. Gupta3
Climate reconstructions reveal unprecedented warming in
the past century; however, little is known about trends in aspectssuch
as the monsoon. We reconstructed the monsoon winds for thepast 1000 years using fossil Globigerina bulloides abundance inbox
cores from the Arabian Sea and found that monsoon wind strengthincreased during the past four centuries as the Northern Hemispherewarmed. We infer that the observed link between Eurasian snowcover and
the southwest monsoon persists on a centennial scale.Alternatively,
the forcing implicated in the warming trend (volcanicaerosols, solar
output, and greenhouse gases) may directly affectthe monsoon. Either
interpretation is consistent with the hypothesisthat the southwest
monsoon strength will increase during the comingcentury as greenhouse
gas concentrations continue to rise andnorthern latitudes continue to
warm.
1 NOAA Paleoclimatology Program and University
of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80303, USA.
2 Department of
Geosciences and Institute for the Study of Planet Earth, University of
Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
3 Indian Institute
of Technology, Kharagpur 721 302, India.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
dma{at}ngdc.noaa.gov
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