AbstractsAstronomy & Space Science

Revisiting the statistical relationship between solar activity and Asian monsoon during the Holocene

by Yue Zhang




Institution: University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill
Department:
Year: 2012
Record ID: 1978961
Full text PDF: http://dc.lib.unc.edu/u?/etd,4732


Abstract

The relationship between the sun and terrestrial climate in the past has been controversial. Given the difficulty in understanding the underlying mechanism(s) of solar influence on the climate system, the empirical relationship between the sun and climate variables relies on statistical analyses. The tight link between proxies for solar irradiance and the Asian monsoon has gained wide consensus; however, this unresolved scientific issue is still under debate. Here, the nonlinear and nonstationary relationship between solar activity and Asian monsoon strength during the last 8,800 years is investigated with Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) and Wavelet Coherence (WTC). The results show the coherence between solar activity and Asian monsoon strength is low in time-frequency-oscillatory mode representation. There is no causal relationship between solar activity and Asian monsoon strength during the Holocene that can be identified. This research provides a new insight into the sun-Asian monsoon interaction.