Responses of the Hadley Circulation to Regional Sea Surface Temperature Changes

Journal Article · Thu Dec 12 00:00:00 EST 2019 · Journal of Climate

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0315.1· OSTI ID:1597585

Zhou, Chen ^[1]; Lu, Jian ^[2]; Hu, Yongyun ^[3]; Zelinka, Mark D. ^[4]

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1. Nanjing Univ. (China)
2. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
3. Peking Univ., Beijing (China)
4. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

We discuss idealized experiments performed with the Community Atmospheric Model 5.3 which indicate that the width and strength of the Hadley circulation (HC) are sensitive to the location of sea surface temperature (SST) increases. The HC edge shifts poleward in response to SST increases over the subtropical regions near and on the equatorward flank of the HC edge, and shifts equatorward in response to warming over the tropical area except for the western Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. The HC is strengthened in response to SST increases over the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) and is weakened in response to SST increases over the subsidence branch of the HC in the subtropics. Tropical SST increases off the ITCZ tend to weaken the HC in the corresponding hemisphere and strengthen the HC in the opposite hemisphere. These results could be used to explain the simulated HC changes induced by recent SST variations, and it is estimated that more than half of the SST-induced HC widening in 1980–2014 is caused by changes in the spatial pattern of SST.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC52-07NA27344; NSFC-41875095; AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1597585
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1606191
• Report Number(s): LLNL-JRNL-772602; PNNL-SA-143197; 964240
• Journal Information: Journal of Climate, Vol. 33, Issue 2; ISSN 0894-8755
• Publisher: American Meteorological Society
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Geosciences
Atmospheric circulation
Hadley circulation
Decadal variability
Interannual variability