A Continuous Record of Central Tropical Pacific Climate Since the Midnineteenth Century Reconstructed From Fanning and Palmyra Island Corals: A Case Study in Coral Data Reanalysis

A continuous, monthly resolved climate record spanning the past 160 years for the central tropical Pacific (CTP) reveals a strong trend toward warmer and wetter conditions in late twentieth century, aligning with climate model hindcasts. This reconstruction, derived from coral oxygen isotope records (δ18O) from Fanning and Palmyra Islands using the RegEM method to impute missing data, highlights four exceptionally strong El Niño events (1877–1878, 1940–1941, 1997–1998, 2015–2016). The study demonstrates how shorter coral segments can be concatenated to build extended time series, providing insights into precursor warm events that may influence the development of strong El Niño phenomena.

Sanchez, S. C., Westphal, N., Haug, G. H., Cheng, H., Edwards, R. L., Schneider, T., Cobb, K. M., & Charles, C. D. (2020). A Continuous Record of Central Tropical Pacific Climate Since the Midnineteenth Century Reconstructed From Fanning and Palmyra Island Corals: A Case Study in Coral Data Reanalysis. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 35(8). Portico. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020pa003848