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Originally published in Science Express on 31 July 2008
Science 5 September 2008:
Vol. 321. no. 5894, pp. 1338 - 1340
DOI: 10.1126/science.1157638
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Reports

Regional Synthesis of Mediterranean Atmospheric Circulation During the Last Glacial Maximum

J. Kuhlemann,1* E. J. Rohling,2 I. Krumrei,1 P. Kubik,3 S. Ivy-Ochs,4 M. Kucera1

Atmospheric circulation leaves few direct traces in the geological record, making reconstructions of this crucial element of the climate system inherently difficult. We produced a regional Mediterranean synthesis of paleo-proxy data from the sea surface to alpine altitudes. This provides a detailed observational context for change in the three-dimensional structure of atmospheric circulation between the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, ~23,000 to 19,000 years ago) and the present. The synthesis reveals evidence for frequent cold polar air incursions, topographically channeled into the northwestern Mediterranean. Anomalously steep vertical temperature gradients in the central Mediterranean imply local convective precipitation. We find the LGM patterns to be analogous, though amplified, to previously reconstructed phases of enhanced meridional winter circulation during the Maunder Minimum (the Little Ice Age).

1 Institute for Geosciences, University of Tuebingen, Sigwartstrasse 10, D-72076 Tuebingen, Germany.
2 School of Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK.
3 Institute of Particle Physics, HPK H30, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
4 Institute of Particle Physics, HPK H27, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kuhlemann{at}uni-tuebingen.de

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)