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Establishing accurate chronological frameworks is imperative for reliably identifying lead–lag dynamics within the climate system and enabling meaningful intercomparisons across diverse paleoclimate proxy records over long time periods. Robust age models provide a solid temporal foundation for establishing correlations between paleoclimate records. One of the primary challenges in constructing reliable radiocarbon-based chronologies in the marine environment is to determine the regional marine radiocarbon reservoir age correction. Calculations of the local marine reservoir effect (ΔR) can be acquired using independent 14C dating methods, such as synchronization with other well-dated archives. The cosmogenic radionuclide 10Be offers such a synchronization tool. Its atmospheric production rate is controlled by the global changes in the cosmic ray influx, caused by variations in solar activity and geomagnetic field strength. The resulting fluctuations in the meteoric deposition of 10Be are preserved in sediments and ice cores and can thus be utilized for their synchronization. In this study, for the first time, we use the authigenic 10Be/9Be record of a Laptev Sea sediment core for the period 8–14 kyr BP and synchronize it with the 10Be records from absolutely dated ice cores. Based on the resulting absolute chronology, a benthic ΔR value of +345 ± 60 14C years was estimated for the Laptev Sea, which corresponds to a marine reservoir age of 848 ± 90 14C years. The ΔR value was used to refine the age–depth model for core PS2458-4, establishing it as a potential reference chronology for the Laptev Sea. We also compare the calculated ΔR value with modern estimates from the literature and discuss its implications for the age–depth model.

10Be is produced by the interaction between galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) and solar energetic particles (SEPs) with the Earth's atmospheric constituents. The flux of GCRs is modulated by the varying strength of the magnetic fields of the Earth and the Sun. Measurement of 10Be concentrations from polar ice cores is thus a valuable tool to reconstruct the variations in the geomagnetic field and solar activity levels. The interpretation of 10Be records is, however, complicated by non-production-related effects on the 10Be deposition rate caused by climate- or weather-induced variability. Furthermore, volcanic eruptions have been proposed to lead to short-term 10Be deposition enhancements. In this study, we test the use of excess meltwater from continuous flow analysis (CFA) to measure 10Be, allowing less time-consuming and more cost-effective sample preparation. We compare two records obtained from CFA and discrete samples from the East Greenland Ice core Project (EGRIP) S6 firn core, reaching back to 1900 CE. We find that the two records agree well and that the 10Be record from CFA samples agrees as well as the discrete samples with other records from Greenland. Furthermore, by subtracting the theoretically expected GCR-induced signal, we investigate the high-frequency variability in the 10Be records from Greenland and Antarctica after 1951 CE, focusing on SEP events and volcanic eruptions. Finally, we use the 10Be records from Greenland and Antarctica to study the 11-year solar cycles, allowing us to assess the suitability of the CFA samples for the reconstruction of solar activity. This result opens new opportunities for the collection of continuous 10Be records with less time-consuming sample preparation, while saving an important portion of the ice cores for other measurements.

Between 15 and 27 kyr b2k (thousands of years before 2000 CE) during the last glacial, Greenland experienced a prolonged cold stadial phase, interrupted by two short-lived warm interstadials. Greenland ice-core calcium data show two periods, preceding the interstadials, of anomalously high atmospheric dust loading, the origin of which is not well understood. At approximately the same time as the Greenland dust peaks, the Chinese Hulu Cave speleothems exhibit a climatic signal suggested to be a response to Heinrich Event 2, a period of enhanced ice-rafted debris deposition in the North Atlantic. In the climatic signal of Antarctic ice cores, moreover, a relative warming occurs between 23 and 24.5 kyr b2k that is generally interpreted as a counterpart to a cool climate phase in the Northern Hemisphere. Proposed centennial-scale offsets between the polar ice-core timescales and the speleothem timescale hamper the precise reconstruction of the global sequence of these climatic events. Here, we examine two new 10Be datasets from Greenland and Antarctic ice cores to test the agreement between different timescales, by taking advantage of the globally synchronous cosmogenic radionuclide production rates. Evidence of an event similar to the Maunder Solar Minimum is found in the new 10Be datasets, supported by lower-resolution radionuclide data from Greenland and 14C in the Hulu Cave speleothem, representing a good synchronization candidate at around 22 kyr b2k. By matching the respective 10Be data, we determine the offset between the Greenland ice-core chronology, GICC05, and the Antarctic chronology for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide ice core (WDC), WD2014, to be 125 ± 40 years. Furthermore, via radionuclide wiggle-matching, we determine the offset between the Hulu speleothem and ice-core timescales to be 375 years for GICC05 (75–625 years at 68 % confidence) and 225 years for WD2014 (−25–425 years at 68 % confidence). The rather wide uncertainties are intrinsic to the wiggle-matching algorithm and the limitations set by data resolution. The undercounting of annual layers in GICC05 inferred from the offset is hypothesized to have been caused by a combination of underdetected annual layers, especially during periods with low winter precipitation, and misinterpreted unusual patterns in the annual signal during the extremely cold period often referred to as Heinrich Stadial 1.

The research area of climate field reconstructions has developed strongly during the past 20 years, motivated by the need to understand the complex dynamics of the earth system in a changing climate. Climate field reconstructions aim to build a consistent gridded climate reconstruction of different variables, often from a range of climate proxies, using either statistical tools or a climate model to fill the gaps between the locations of the proxy data. Commonly, large-scale climate field reconstructions covering more than 500 years are of annual resolution. In this method study, we investigate the potential of seasonally resolved climate field reconstructions based on oxygen isotope records from Greenland ice cores and an isotope-enabled climate model. Our analogue-type method matches modeled isotope patterns in Greenland precipitation to the patterns of ice core data from up to 14 ice core sites. In a second step, the climate variables of the best-matching model years are extracted, with the mean of the best-matching years comprising the reconstruction. We test a range of climate reconstructions, varying the definition of the seasons and the number of ice cores used. Our findings show that the optimal definition of the seasons depends on the variability in the target season. For winter, the vigorous variability is best captured when defining the season as December–February due to the dominance of large-scale patterns. For summer, which has weaker variability, albeit more persistent in time, the variability is better captured using a longer season of May–October. Motivated by the scarcity of seasonal data, we also test the use of annual data where the year is divided during summer, that is, not following the calendar year. This means that the winter variability is not split and that the annual data then can be used to reconstruct the winter variability. In particularly when reconstructing the sea level pressure and the corresponding main modes of variability, it is important to take seasonality into account, because of changes in the spatial patterns of the modes throughout the year. Targeting the annual mean sea level pressure for the reconstruction lowers the skill simply due to the seasonal geographical shift of the circulation modes. Our reconstructions based on ice core data also show skill for the North Atlantic sea surface temperatures, in particularly during winter for latitudes higher than 50∘ N. In addition, the main modes of the sea surface temperature variability are qualitatively captured by the reconstructions. When testing the skill of the reconstructions using 19 ice cores compared to the ones using eight ice cores, we do not find a clear advantage of using a larger data set. This could be due to a more even spatial distribution of the eight ice cores. However, including European tree-ring data to further constrain the summer temperature reconstruction clearly improves the skill for this season, which otherwise is more difficult to capture than the winter season.

The last glacial period is characterized by a number of millennial climate events that have been identified in both Greenland and Antarctic ice cores and that are abrupt in Greenland climate records. The mechanisms governing this climate variability remain a puzzle that requires a precise synchronization of ice cores from the two hemispheres to be resolved. Previously, Greenland and Antarctic ice cores have been synchronized primarily via their common records of gas concentrations or isotopes from the trapped air and via cosmogenic isotopes measured on the ice. In this work, we apply ice core volcanic proxies and annual layer counting to identify large volcanic eruptions that have left a signature in both Greenland and Antarctica. Generally, no tephra is associated with those eruptions in the ice cores, so the source of the eruptions cannot be identified. Instead, we identify and match sequences of volcanic eruptions with bipolar distribution of sulfate, i.e. unique patterns of volcanic events separated by the same number of years at the two poles. Using this approach, we pinpoint 82 large bipolar volcanic eruptions throughout the second half of the last glacial period (12–60 ka). This improved ice core synchronization is applied to determine the bipolar phasing of abrupt climate change events at decadal-scale precision. In response to Greenland abrupt climatic transitions, we find a response in the Antarctic water isotope signals (δ18O and deuterium excess) that is both more immediate and more abrupt than that found with previous gas-based interpolar synchronizations, providing additional support for our volcanic framework. On average, the Antarctic bipolar seesaw climate response lags the midpoint of Greenland abrupt δ18O transitions by 122±24 years. The time difference between Antarctic signals in deuterium excess and δ18O, which likewise informs the time needed to propagate the signal as described by the theory of the bipolar seesaw but is less sensitive to synchronization errors, suggests an Antarctic δ18O lag behind Greenland of 152±37 years. These estimates are shorter than the 200 years suggested by earlier gas-based synchronizations. As before, we find variations in the timing and duration between the response at different sites and for different events suggesting an interaction of oceanic and atmospheric teleconnection patterns as well as internal climate variability.

Several climate oscillations have been reported from the early Holocene superepoch, the best known of which is the Preboreal oscillation (PBO). It is still unclear how the PBO and the number of climate oscillations observed in Greenland ice cores and European terrestrial records are related to one another. This is mainly due to uncertainties in the chronologies of the records. Here, we present new, high-resolution 10Be concentration data from the varved Meerfelder Maar sediment record in Germany, spanning the period 11 310–11 000 years BP. These new data allow us to synchronize this well-studied record, as well as Greenland ice core records, with the IntCal13 timescale via radionuclide wiggle matching. In doing so, we show that the climate oscillations identified in Greenland and Europe between 11 450 and 11 000 years BP were not synchronous but terminated and began, respectively, with the onset of a grand solar minimum. A similar spatial anomaly pattern is found in a number of modeling studies on solar forcing of climate in the North Atlantic region. We further postulate that freshwater delivery to the North Atlantic would have had the potential to amplify solar forcing through a slowdown of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) reinforcing surface air temperature anomalies in the region.

Despite intense focus on the ∼190 ‰ drop in atmospheric Δ14C during Heinrich Stadial 1 at ∼17.4–14.6 ka, the specific mechanisms responsible for the apparent Δ14C excess in the glacial atmosphere have received considerably less attention. The computationally efficient Bern3D Earth system model of intermediate complexity, designed for long-term climate simulations, allows us to address a very fundamental but still elusive question concerning the atmospheric Δ14C record: how can we explain the persistence of relatively high Δ14C values during the millennia after the Laschamp event? Large uncertainties in the pre-Holocene 14C production rate, as well as in the older portion of the Δ14C record, complicate our qualitative and quantitative interpretation of the glacial Δ14C elevation. Here we begin with sensitivity experiments that investigate the controls on atmospheric Δ14C in idealized settings. We show that the interaction with the ocean sediments may be much more important to the simulation of Δ14C than had been previously thought. In order to provide a bounded estimate of glacial Δ14C change, the Bern3D model was integrated with five available estimates of the 14C production rate as well as reconstructed and hypothetical paleoclimate forcing. Model results demonstrate that none of the available reconstructions of past changes in 14C production can reproduce the elevated Δ14C levels during the last glacial. In order to increase atmospheric Δ14C to glacial levels, a drastic reduction of air–sea exchange efficiency in the polar regions must be assumed, though discrepancies remain for the portion of the record younger than ∼33 ka. We end with an illustration of how the 14C production rate would have had to evolve to be consistent with the Δ14C record by combining an atmospheric radiocarbon budget with the Bern3D model. The overall conclusion is that the remaining discrepancies with respect to glacial Δ14C may be linked to an underestimation of 14C production and/or a biased-high reconstruction of Δ14C over the time period of interest. Alternatively, we appear to still be missing an important carbon cycle process for atmospheric Δ14C.

Changes in the latitudinal position and strength of the Southern Hemisphere westerlies (SHW) are thought to be tightly coupled to important climate processes, such as cross-equatorial heat fluxes, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the bipolar seesaw, Southern Ocean ventilation and atmospheric CO2 levels. However, many uncertainties regarding magnitude, direction, and causes and effects of past SHW shifts still exist due to lack of suitable sites and scarcity of information on SHW dynamics, especially from the last glacial. Here we present a detailed hydroclimate multiproxy record from a 36.4–18.6 kyr old lake sediment sequence on Nightingale Island (NI). It is strategically located at 37∘ S in the central South Atlantic (SA) within the SHW belt and situated just north of the marine Subtropical Front (SF). This has enabled us to assess hydroclimate changes and their link to the regional climate development as well as to large-scale climate events in polar ice cores. The NI record exhibits a continuous impact of the SHW, recording shifts in both position and strength, and between 36 and 31 ka the westerlies show high latitudinal and strength-wise variability possibly linked to the bipolar seesaw. This was followed by 4 kyr of slightly falling temperatures, decreasing humidity and fairly southerly westerlies. After 27 ka temperatures decreased 3–4 ∘C, marking the largest hydroclimate change with drier conditions and a variable SHW position. We note that periods with more intense and southerly-positioned SHW seem to be related to periods of increased CO2 outgassing from the ocean, while changes in the cross-equatorial gradient during large northern temperature changes appear as the driving mechanism for the SHW shifts. Together with coeval shifts of the South Pacific westerlies, our results show that most of the Southern Hemisphere experienced simultaneous atmospheric circulation changes during the latter part of the last glacial. Finally we can conclude that multiproxy lake records from oceanic islands have the potential to record atmospheric variability coupled to large-scale climate shifts over vast oceanic areas.

During the last glacial period, proxy records throughout the Northern Hemisphere document a succession of rapid millennial-scale warming events, called Dansgaard–Oeschger (DO) events. A range of different mechanisms has been proposed that can produce similar warming in model experiments; however, the progression and ultimate trigger of the events are still unknown. Because of their fast nature, the progression is challenging to reconstruct from paleoclimate data due to the limited temporal resolution achievable in many archives and cross-dating uncertainties between records. Here, we use new high-resolution multi-proxy records of sea-salt (derived from sea spray and sea ice over the North Atlantic) and terrestrial (derived from the central Asian deserts) aerosol concentrations over the period 10–60 ka from the North Greenland Ice Core Project (NGRIP) and North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling (NEEM) ice cores in conjunction with local precipitation and temperature proxies from the NGRIP ice core to investigate the progression of environmental changes at the onset of the warming events at annual to multi-annual resolution. Our results show on average a small lead of the changes in both local precipitation and terrestrial dust aerosol concentrations over the change in sea-salt aerosol concentrations and local temperature of approximately one decade. This suggests that, connected to the reinvigoration of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and the warming in the North Atlantic, both synoptic and hemispheric atmospheric circulation changes at the onset of the DO warming, affecting both the moisture transport to Greenland and the Asian monsoon systems. Taken at face value, this suggests that a collapse of the sea-ice cover may not have been the initial trigger for the DO warming.

During the last glacial period Northern Hemisphere climate was characterized by extreme and abrupt climate changes, so-called Dansgaard–Oeschger (DO) events. Most clearly observed as temperature changes in Greenland ice-core records, their climatic imprint was geographically widespread. However, the temporal relation between DO events in Greenland and other regions is uncertain due to the chronological uncertainties of each archive, limiting our ability to test hypotheses of synchronous change. In contrast, the assumption of direct synchrony of climate changes forms the basis of many timescales. Here, we use cosmogenic radionuclides (10Be, 36Cl, 14C) to link Greenland ice-core records to U∕Th-dated speleothems, quantify offsets between the two timescales, and improve their absolute dating back to 45 000 years ago. This approach allows us to test the assumption that DO events occurred synchronously between Greenland ice-core and tropical speleothem records with unprecedented precision. We find that the onset of DO events occurs within synchronization uncertainties in all investigated records. Importantly, we demonstrate that local discrepancies remain in the temporal development of rapid climate change for specific events and speleothems. These may either be related to the location of proxy records relative to the shifting atmospheric fronts or to underestimated U∕Th dating uncertainties. Our study thus highlights the potential for misleading interpretations of the Earth system when applying the common practice of climate wiggle matching.

The effect of external forcings on atmospheric circulation is debated. Due to the short observational period, the analysis of the role of external forcings is hampered, making it difficult to assess the sensitivity of atmospheric circulation to external forcings, as well as persistence of the effects. In observations, the average response to tropical volcanic eruptions is a positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) during the following winter. However, past major tropical eruptions exceeding the magnitude of eruptions during the instrumental era could have had more lasting effects. Decadal NAO variability has been suggested to follow the 11-year solar cycle, and linkages have been made between grand solar minima and negative NAO. However, the solar link to NAO found by modeling studies is not unequivocally supported by reconstructions, and is not consistently present in observations for the 20th century. Here we present a reconstruction of atmospheric winter circulation for the North Atlantic region covering the period 1241–1970 CE. Based on seasonally resolved Greenland ice core records and a 1200-year-long simulation with an isotope-enabled climate model, we reconstruct sea level pressure and temperature by matching the spatiotemporal variability in the modeled isotopic composition to that of the ice cores. This method allows us to capture the primary (NAO) and secondary mode (Eastern Atlantic Pattern) of atmospheric circulation in the North Atlantic region, while, contrary to previous reconstructions, preserving the amplitude of observed year-to-year atmospheric variability. Our results show five winters of positive NAO on average following major tropical volcanic eruptions, which is more persistent than previously suggested. In response to decadal minima of solar activity we find a high-pressure anomaly over northern Europe, while a reinforced opposite response in pressure emerges with a 5-year time lag. On centennial timescales we observe a similar response of circulation as for the 5-year time-lagged response, with a high-pressure anomaly across North America and south of Greenland. This response to solar forcing is correlated to the second mode of atmospheric circulation, the Eastern Atlantic Pattern. The response could be due to an increase in blocking frequency, possibly linked to a weakening of the subpolar gyre. The long-term anomalies of temperature during solar minima shows cooling across Greenland, Iceland and western Europe, resembling the cooling pattern during the Little Ice Age (1450–1850 CE). While our results show significant correlation between solar forcing and the secondary circulation pattern on decadal (r = 0.29, p r = 0.6, p

Analyzing seasonally resolved δ18O ice core data can aid the interpretation of the climate information in ice cores, also providing insights into factors governing the δ18O signal that cannot be deciphered by investigating the annual δ18O data only. However, the seasonal isotope signal has not yet been investigated in northern Greenland, e.g., at the NEEM (North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling) ice core drill site. Here, we analyze seasonally resolved δ18O data from four shallow NEEM ice cores covering the last 150 years. Based on correlation analysis with observed temperature, we attribute about 70 and 30 % of annual accumulation to summer and winter, respectively. The NEEM summer δ18O signal correlates strongly with summer western Greenland coastal temperature and with the first principal component (PC1) of summer δ18O from multiple seasonally resolved ice cores from central/southern Greenland. However, there are no significant correlations between NEEM winter δ18O data and western Greenland coastal winter temperature or southern/central Greenland winter δ18O PC1. The stronger correlation with temperature during summer and the dominance of summer precipitation skew the annual δ18O signal in NEEM. The strong footprint of temperature in NEEM summer δ18O record also suggests that the summer δ18O record rather than the winter δ18O record is a better temperature proxy at the NEEM site. Despite the dominant signal of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) in the central–southern ice core data, both NAO and AMO exert weak influences on NEEM seasonal δ18O variations. The NEEM seasonal δ18O is found to be highly correlated with Baffin Bay sea ice concentration (SIC) in the satellite observation period (1979–2004), suggesting a connection of the sea ice extent with δ18O at NEEM. NEEM winter δ18O significantly correlates with SIC even for the period prior to satellite observation (1901–1978). The NEEM winter δ18O may reflect sea ice variations of Baffin Bay rather than temperature itself. This study shows that seasonally resolved δ18O records, especially for sites with a seasonal precipitation bias such as NEEM, provide a better understanding of how changing air temperature and circulation patterns are associated with the variability in the δ18O records.

Timescale uncertainties between paleoclimate reconstructions often inhibit studying the exact timing, spatial expression and driving mechanisms of climate variations. Detecting and aligning the globally common cosmogenic radionuclide production signal via a curve fitting method provides a tool for the quasi-continuous synchronization of paleoclimate archives. In this study, we apply this approach to synchronize 10Be records from varved sediments of Tiefer See and Lake Czechowskie covering the Maunder, Homeric and 5500 a BP grand solar minima with 14C production rates inferred from the IntCal13 calibration curve. Our analyses indicate best fits with 14C production rates when the 10Be records from Tiefer See were shifted for 8 (−12∕ + 4) (Maunder Minimum), 31 (−16∕ + 12) (Homeric Minimum) and 86 (−22∕ + 18) years (5500 a BP grand solar minimum) towards the past. The best fit between the Lake Czechowskie 10Be record for the 5500 a BP grand solar minimum and 14C production was obtained when the 10Be time series was shifted 29 (−8∕ + 7) years towards present. No significant fits were detected between the Lake Czechowskie 10Be records for the Maunder and Homeric minima and 14C production, likely due to intensified in-lake sediment resuspension since about 2800 a BP, transporting old 10Be to the coring location. Our results provide a proof of concept for facilitating 10Be in varved lake sediments as a novel synchronization tool required for investigating leads and lags of proxy responses to climate variability. However, they also point to some limitations of 10Be in these archives, mainly connected to in-lake sediment resuspension processes.

We present the WD2014 chronology for the upper part (0–2850 m; 31.2 ka BP) of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide (WD) ice core. The chronology is based on counting of annual layers observed in the chemical, dust and electrical conductivity records. These layers are caused by seasonal changes in the source, transport, and deposition of aerosols. The measurements were interpreted manually and with the aid of two automated methods. We validated the chronology by comparing to two high-accuracy, absolutely dated chronologies. For the Holocene, the cosmogenic isotope records of 10Be from WAIS Divide and 14C for IntCal13 demonstrated that WD2014 was consistently accurate to better than 0.5 % of the age. For the glacial period, comparisons to the Hulu Cave chronology demonstrated that WD2014 had an accuracy of better than 1 % of the age at three abrupt climate change events between 27 and 31 ka. WD2014 has consistently younger ages than Greenland ice core chronologies during most of the Holocene. For the Younger Dryas–Preboreal transition (11.595 ka; 24 years younger) and the Bølling–Allerød Warming (14.621 ka; 7 years younger), WD2014 ages are within the combined uncertainties of the timescales. Given its high accuracy, WD2014 can become a reference chronology for the Southern Hemisphere, with synchronization to other chronologies feasible using high-quality proxies of volcanism, solar activity, atmospheric mineral dust, and atmospheric methane concentrations.

Investigations of past climate dynamics rely on accurate and precise chronologies of the employed climate reconstructions. The radiocarbon dating calibration curve (IntCal13) and the Greenland ice core chronology (GICC05) represent two of the most widely used chronological frameworks in paleoclimatology of the past ∼ 50 000 years. However, comparisons of climate records anchored on these chronologies are hampered by the precision and accuracy of both timescales. Here we use common variations in the production rates of 14C and 10Be recorded in tree-rings and ice cores, respectively, to assess the differences between both timescales during the Holocene. Compared to earlier work, we employ a novel statistical approach which leads to strongly reduced and yet, more robust, uncertainty estimates. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the inferred timescale differences are robust independent of (i) the applied ice core 10Be records, (ii) assumptions of the mode of 10Be deposition, as well as (iii) carbon cycle effects on 14C, and (iv) in agreement with independent estimates of the timescale differences. Our results imply that the GICC05 counting error is likely underestimated during the most recent 2000 years leading to a dating bias that propagates throughout large parts of the Holocene. Nevertheless, our analysis indicates that the GICC05 counting error is generally a robust uncertainty measurement but care has to be taken when treating it as a nearly Gaussian error distribution. The proposed IntCal13-GICC05 transfer function facilitates the comparison of ice core and radiocarbon dated paleoclimate records at high chronological precision.

Nine thousand years ago (9 ka BP), the Northern Hemisphere experienced enhanced seasonality caused by an orbital configuration close to the minimum of the precession index. To assess the impact of this "Holocene Insolation Maximum" (HIM) on the Mediterranean Sea, we use a regional ocean general circulation model forced by atmospheric input derived from global simulations. A stronger seasonal cycle is simulated by the model, which shows a relatively homogeneous winter cooling and a summer warming with well-defined spatial patterns, in particular, a subsurface warming in the Cretan and western Levantine areas. The comparison between the SST simulated for the HIM and a reconstruction from planktonic foraminifera transfer functions shows a poor agreement, especially for summer, when the vertical temperature gradient is strong. As a novel approach, we propose a reinterpretation of the reconstruction, to consider the conditions throughout the upper water column rather than at a single depth. We claim that such a depth-integrated approach is more adequate for surface temperature comparison purposes in a situation where the upper ocean structure in the past was different from the present-day. In this case, the depth-integrated interpretation of the proxy data strongly improves the agreement between modelled and reconstructed temperature signal with the subsurface summer warming being recorded by both model and proxies, with a small shift to the south in the model results. The mechanisms responsible for the peculiar subsurface pattern are found to be a combination of enhanced downwelling and wind mixing due to strengthened Etesian winds, and enhanced thermal forcing due to the stronger summer insolation in the Northern Hemisphere. Together, these processes induce a stronger heat transfer from the surface to the subsurface during late summer in the western Levantine; this leads to an enhanced heat piracy in this region, a process never identified before, but potentially characteristic of time slices with enhanced insolation.

Nine thousand years ago (9 ka BP), the Northern Hemisphere experienced enhanced seasonality caused by an orbital configuration close to the minimum of the precession index. To assess the impact of this "Holocene Insolation Maximum" (HIM) on the Mediterranean Sea, we use a regional ocean general circulation model forced by atmospheric input derived from global simulations. A stronger seasonal cycle is simulated by the model, which shows a relatively homogeneous winter cooling and a summer warming with well-defined spatial patterns, in particular, a subsurface warming in the Cretan and western Levantine areas. The comparison between the SST simulated for the HIM and a reconstruction from planktonic foraminifera transfer functions shows a poor agreement, especially for summer, when the vertical temperature gradient is strong. As a novel approach, we propose a reinterpretation of the reconstruction, to consider the conditions throughout the upper water column rather than at a single depth. We claim that such a depth-integrated approach is more adequate for surface temperature comparison purposes in a situation where the upper ocean structure in the past was different from the present-day. In this case, the depth-integrated interpretation of the proxy data strongly improves the agreement between modelled and reconstructed temperature signal with the subsurface summer warming being recorded by both model and proxies, with a small shift to the south in the model results. The mechanisms responsible for the peculiar subsurface pattern are found to be a combination of enhanced downwelling and wind mixing due to strengthened Etesian winds, and enhanced thermal forcing due to the stronger summer insolation in the Northern Hemisphere. Together, these processes induce a stronger heat transfer from the surface to the subsurface during late summer in the western Levantine; this leads to an enhanced heat piracy in this region, a process never identified before, but potentially characteristic of time slices with enhanced insolation.