HR: 16:15h
AN: GC44A-02    [Abstracts]
TI: Multi-proxy extension of the winter temperature record from Svalbard Airport
AU: * Kohler, J
EM: jack@npolar.no
AF: Norwegian Polar Inst., Polar Environmental Center, Tromso, N-9007 Norway
AU: Nordli, $
EM: oyvind.nordli@met.no
AF: Norwegian Meteorological Inst., Box 43 Blindern, Oslo, N-0313 Norway
AU: Isaksson, E
EM: elli@npolar.no
AF: Norwegian Polar Inst., Polar Environmental Center, Tromso, N-9007 Norway
AU: Pohjola, V
EM: veijo.pohjola@geo.uu.se
AF: U. Uppsala, Dept. Earth Sciences, Uppsala, S-752 36 Sweden
AU: Martma, T
EM: martma@gi.ee
AF: Tallinn Tech. U., Inst. Geology., Tallinn, 10143 Estonia
AB: The homogenized Svalbard Airport temperature record (1912-present) is one of only a few long-term ($>$65 yr) instrumental records from the high Arctic. The early part of the record shows a dramatic increase in temperature around 1918, the so-called early 20th century warming. We present an extended Svalbard Airport winter record obtained using newly digitised meteorological observations from thirteen winters in the interval 1872-1915, and three proxy records: ice-core oxygen isotope data from the high-resolution 1997 Lomonosovfonna ice core; the Barents Sea ice-edge record, and the Vard$\o$, Norway temperature record. Our results suggest that a gradual warming on Svalbard started in the 1800s, and that the apparent step-change in Svalbard climate is simply part of an overall warming trend, which we estimate to be somewhere between 0.015-0.025 \deg C yr$^{-1}$ for the period 1860-1995, in line with borehole estimates. Newly available daily meteorological observations at Green Harbour show that the early 20th century warming on Svalbard is associated with an decreased occurrence of clear sky conditions and resultant inversions. Increased cloud cover accounts for about 2/3 of the observed temperature increase in the early 20th century warming at Svalbard Airport.
DE: 9315 Arctic region
DE: 3344 Paleoclimatology
DE: 3309 Climatology (1620)
SC: Global Climate Change [GC]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting