Nature Research, Nature Geoscience, 3(9), p. 206-209, 2016
DOI: 10.1038/ngeo2640
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Some of the natural variability in climate is understood to come from changes in the Sun. A key route whereby the Sun may influence surface climate is initiated in the tropical stratosphere by the absorption of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation by ozone, leading to a modification of the temperature and wind structures and consequently to the surface through changes in wave propagation and circulation 1–4. While changes in total, spectrally-integrated, solar irradiance lead to small variations in global mean surface temperature, the 'top-down' UV effect preferentially influences on regional scales at mid-to-high latitudes with, in particular, a solar signal noted in the North Atlantic Oscillation 5, 6 (NAO). The am-1