Author(s): Dominik Stiller, University of Washington (First Author, Presenting Author) Kyle Armour, University of Washington Gregory Hakim, University of Washington
Earth gains and loses energy over time, which changes temperatures, sea ice, and precipitation. Our direct measurements from satellites only cover the past few decades, which isn't long enough to understand the climate's natural variability. Therefore, we reconstruct energy changes associated with temperature variations over the last thousand years based on natural climate records like tree rings and corals, which we combine with climate model simulations. We find a long-term global cooling trend that changes low and high cloud patterns over the oceans, especially the tropical Pacific. We also look at how energy is lost in the ocean after volcanic eruptions, and how a slow recovery from this loss could have amplified the cooling trend.
