A 550,000-year record of East Asian monsoon rainfall from Be in loess.

Cosmogenic Be flux from the atmosphere is a proxy for rainfall. Using this proxy, we derived a 550,000-year-long record of East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) rainfall from Chinese loess. This record is forced at orbital precession frequencies, with higher rainfall observed during Northern Hemisphere summer insolation maxima, although this response is damped during cold interstadials.

Reconstructing surface ocean circulation with I time series records from corals.

The long-lived radionuclide I (half-life: 15.7 × 10 yr) is well-known as a useful environmental tracer. At present, the global I in surface water is about 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than pre-1960 levels.