Description: Key Points: - Novel micro-analytical techniques allow seasonally resolved climate proxy data from varved marine sediments - Potential to generate seasonal and inter annual resolution sea surface temperature proxy time series spanning 〉1,000 years - Thorough assessment of processes that influence the climate signal recovered from proxies, validated with careful replication, is required Three recently published papers including Napier et al. (2022, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021PA004355) utilize novel microanalytical approaches with varved marine sediments to demonstrate the potential to reconstruct seasonal and inter-annual climate variability. Obtaining paleoclimate data at a resolution akin to the observational record is vitally important for improving our understanding of climate phenomena such as monsoons and modes of variability such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, for which appraisals of past inter-annual variability is critical. The ability to generate seasonal and inter annual resolution sea surface temperature proxy time series spanning a thousand years or more is revolutionary and has the potential to fill gaps in our knowledge of climate variability. Although generally limited to sediments from regions with oxygen depleted bottom waters, there is great potential to integrate shorter seasonal resolution climate “snap shots” from other archives such as annually banded corals into composite time series. But as paleoceanographic data are used more by the observational and modeling fields, we make the case for conducting a thorough case-by-case assessment of the processes that influence the climate signal recovered from proxies, using careful replication to validate new approaches. Understanding or exploring the potential influence of processes which effectively filter the climate signal will lead to more quantitative paleoceanographic data that will better serve the broader climate science community.

Description: Three recently published papers including Napier et al. (2022, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021PA004355) utilize novel microanalytical approaches with varved marine sediments to demonstrate the potential to reconstruct seasonal and inter-annual climate variability. Obtaining paleoclimate data at a resolution akin to the observational record is vitally important for improving our understanding of climate phenomena such as monsoons and modes of variability such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, for which appraisals of past inter-annual variability is critical. The ability to generate seasonal and inter annual resolution sea surface temperature proxy time series spanning a thousand years or more is revolutionary and has the potential to fill gaps in our knowledge of climate variability. Although generally limited to sediments from regions with oxygen depleted bottom waters, there is great potential to integrate shorter seasonal resolution climate “snap shots” from other archives such as annually banded corals into composite time series. But as paleoceanographic data are used more by the observational and modeling fields, we make the case for conducting a thorough case-by-case assessment of the processes that influence the climate signal recovered from proxies, using careful replication to validate new approaches. Understanding or exploring the potential influence of processes which effectively filter the climate signal will lead to more quantitative paleoceanographic data that will better serve the broader climate science community.

Description: The East Australian Current (EAC) is the western boundary current of the South Pacific Subtropical Gyre that transports warm tropical waters to higher southern latitudes and significantly impacts the climate of Australia and New Zealand. Modern observations show that the EAC has strengthened with rising global temperatures. However, little is known about the pre-industrial variability of the EAC and the forcing mechanisms. Planktic foraminifera Globigerinoides ruber (white) Mg/Ca-based sea surface temperature reconstructions offshore northeastern Australia between 15° and 26°S reveal an increase by ∼1.2°C after ∼1400 CE. We infer that the increase in temperature is related to a stronger EAC heat transport that is likely driven by a strengthening of the Southern Hemisphere subtropical gyre circulation due to a progressive shift of the Southern annular mode toward its positive phase and of El Niño-Southern Oscillation toward more El Niño-like conditions.