Collaborative Research: P2C2 - Locally-constrained Climate Field Reconstructions of the Last Millennium: Methods and Application

DESCRIPTION: The purpose of the project is to improve multiproxy climate field reconstructions (CFR) during the last millennium by analyzing currently employed non-local multivariate CFR methods, test RSOI-derived CFRs using locally calibrated proxies, and deriving better estimates of millennial CFRs using the RSOI method.

OUTCOMES: The project has determined there are pervasive commonalities in performance of CFR methods, but second-order differences in their reconstructions with the best results near proxy measurements; CFR performance features have been identified; Improved the spatial coverage of Mann et al.; identified processing errors in pseudoproxy data sets; the improper nature of significance testing used by McShane and Wyner was exposed; provided new statistical frameworks for comparing the spatial skill of reconstructions; and developed a region CFR for western North America. Project also responsible for 17 outreach activities, a website, nine journal publications, and ten one-time publications.