Millennium-Scale Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and Soil Moisture Influence on Western Mediterranean Cloudiness.

ABSTRACT: Understanding long-term historical changes in cloudiness is essential for elucidating Earth's climate dynamics and variability and its extremes. In this study, we present the first millennial-length reconstruction of the annual total cloud cover (TCC) in the western Mediterranean, covering the period from 969 to 2022 CE. Based on a comprehensive set of hydrological and atmospheric variables, our reconstruction reveals a nuanced pattern of cloudiness evolution over the past millennium. We observe an initial increase in cloudiness until 1600 CE, followed by a substantial decrease in TCC. This shift was driven by a confluence of factors, including the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in 1815, increased solar forcing, and a positive phase of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. These c

SUBMITTER: Diodato N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11862910 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature