Solar forcing of regional climate change during the maunder minimum

We examine the climate response to solar irradiance changes between the lat e 17th-century Maunder Minimum and the late 18th century. Global average te mperature changes are small (about 0.3 degrees to 0.4 degreesC) in both a c limate model and empirical reconstructions. However, regional temperature c hanges are quite large. In the model, these occur primarily through a force d shift toward the low index state of the Arctic Oscillation/North Atlantic Oscillation as solar irradiance decreases. This leads to colder temperatur es over the Northern Hemisphere continents, especially in winter (1 degrees to 2 degreesC), in agreement with historical records and proxy data for su rface temperatures.