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Eleven-year solar cycles over the last millennium revealed by radiocarbon in tree rings

Brehm, Nicolas ; Bayliss, Alex ; Christl, Marcus ; Synal, Hans Arno ; Adolphi, Florian LU ; Beer, Jürg ; Kromer, Bernd ; Muscheler, Raimund LU orcid ; Solanki, Sami K. and Usoskin, Ilya , et al. (2021) In Nature Geoscience 14(1). p.10-15
Abstract

The Sun provides the principal energy input into the Earth system and solar variability represents a significant external climate forcing. Although observations of solar activity (sunspots) cover only the last about 400 years, radionuclides produced by cosmic rays and stored in tree rings or ice cores serve as proxies for solar activity extending back thousands of years. However, the presence of weather-induced noise or low temporal resolution of long, precisely dated records hampers cosmogenic nuclide-based studies of short-term solar variability such as the 11-yr Schwabe cycle. Here we present a continuous, annually resolved atmospheric 14C concentration (fractionation-corrected ratio of 14CO2 to... (More)

The Sun provides the principal energy input into the Earth system and solar variability represents a significant external climate forcing. Although observations of solar activity (sunspots) cover only the last about 400 years, radionuclides produced by cosmic rays and stored in tree rings or ice cores serve as proxies for solar activity extending back thousands of years. However, the presence of weather-induced noise or low temporal resolution of long, precisely dated records hampers cosmogenic nuclide-based studies of short-term solar variability such as the 11-yr Schwabe cycle. Here we present a continuous, annually resolved atmospheric 14C concentration (fractionation-corrected ratio of 14CO2 to CO2) record reconstructed from absolutely dated tree rings covering nearly all of the last millennium (ad 969–1933). The high-resolution and precision 14C record reveals the presence of the Schwabe cycle over the entire time range. The record confirms the ad 993 solar energetic particle event and reveals two new candidates (ad 1052 and ad 1279), indicating that strong solar events that might be harmful to modern electronic systems probably occur more frequently than previously thought. In addition to showing decadal-scale solar variability over the last millennium, the high-temporal-resolution record of atmospheric radiocarbon also provides a useful benchmark for making radiocarbon dating more accurate over this interval.

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type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Nature Geoscience
volume
14
issue
1
pages
6 pages
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • scopus:85098800457
ISSN
1752-0894
DOI
10.1038/s41561-020-00674-0
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
42443e7c-e5a1-403a-80df-181712ad26b0
date added to LUP
2021-01-14 11:43:51
date last changed
2023-02-21 10:39:47
@article{42443e7c-e5a1-403a-80df-181712ad26b0,
  abstract     = {{<p>The Sun provides the principal energy input into the Earth system and solar variability represents a significant external climate forcing. Although observations of solar activity (sunspots) cover only the last about 400 years, radionuclides produced by cosmic rays and stored in tree rings or ice cores serve as proxies for solar activity extending back thousands of years. However, the presence of weather-induced noise or low temporal resolution of long, precisely dated records hampers cosmogenic nuclide-based studies of short-term solar variability such as the 11-yr Schwabe cycle. Here we present a continuous, annually resolved atmospheric <sup>14</sup>C concentration (fractionation-corrected ratio of <sup>14</sup>CO<sub>2</sub> to CO<sub>2</sub>) record reconstructed from absolutely dated tree rings covering nearly all of the last millennium (ad 969–1933). The high-resolution and precision <sup>14</sup>C record reveals the presence of the Schwabe cycle over the entire time range. The record confirms the ad 993 solar energetic particle event and reveals two new candidates (ad 1052 and ad 1279), indicating that strong solar events that might be harmful to modern electronic systems probably occur more frequently than previously thought. In addition to showing decadal-scale solar variability over the last millennium, the high-temporal-resolution record of atmospheric radiocarbon also provides a useful benchmark for making radiocarbon dating more accurate over this interval.</p>}},
  author       = {{Brehm, Nicolas and Bayliss, Alex and Christl, Marcus and Synal, Hans Arno and Adolphi, Florian and Beer, Jürg and Kromer, Bernd and Muscheler, Raimund and Solanki, Sami K. and Usoskin, Ilya and Bleicher, Niels and Bollhalder, Silvia and Tyers, Cathy and Wacker, Lukas}},
  issn         = {{1752-0894}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{10--15}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Nature Geoscience}},
  title        = {{Eleven-year solar cycles over the last millennium revealed by radiocarbon in tree rings}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-00674-0}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41561-020-00674-0}},
  volume       = {{14}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}