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Title: The tropical rain belts with an annual cycle and a continent model intercomparison project: TRACMIP

Journal Article · · Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2016MS000748· OSTI ID:1346297
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4];  [5];  [6];  [2]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [8];  [9]; ORCiD logo [9]; ORCiD logo [10];  [11]; ORCiD logo [12];  [3]; ORCiD logo [13]; ORCiD logo [14];  [15];  [7] more »; ORCiD logo [16];  [4]; ORCiD logo [17];  [2] « less
  1. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe (Germany); Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
  2. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
  3. Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg (Germany)
  4. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  5. Sorbonne Univ., Paris (France)
  6. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
  7. Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan (South Korea)
  8. Univ. of Reading, Reading (United Kingdom)
  9. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  10. Univ. of Miami, Miami, FL (United States)
  11. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
  12. New York Univ., New York, NY (United States)
  13. Centre National de Recherches Meteorologiques, Toulouse (France)
  14. Univ. at Albany (State Univ. of New York), Albany, NY (United States)
  15. NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY (United States)
  16. Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen (Norway)
  17. Hokkaido Univ., Sapporo (Japan)
+ Show Author Affiliations

This paper introduces the Tropical Rain belts with an Annual cycle and a Continent Model Intercomparison Project (TRACMIP). TRACMIP studies the dynamics of tropical rain belts and their response to past and future radiative forcings through simulations with 13 comprehensive and one simplified atmosphere models coupled to a slab ocean and driven by seasonally-varying insolation. Five idealized experiments, two with an aquaplanet setup and three with a setup with an idealized tropical continent, fill the space between prescribed-SST aquaplanet simulations and realistic simulations provided by CMIP5/6. The simulations reproduce key features of the present-day climate and expected future climate change, including an annual-mean intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) that is located north of the equator and Hadley cells and eddy-driven jets that are similar to the present-day climate. Quadrupling CO2 leads to a northward ITCZ shift and preferential warming in Northern high-latitudes. The simulations show interesting CO2-induced changes in the seasonal excursion of the ITCZ and indicate a possible state-dependence of climate sensitivity. The inclusion of an idealized continent modulates both the control climate and the response to increased CO2; for example it reduces the northward ITCZ shift associated with warming and, in some models, climate sensitivity. In response to eccentricity-driven seasonal insolation changes, seasonal changes in oceanic rainfall are best characterized as a meridional dipole, while seasonal continental rainfall changes tend to be symmetric about the equator. Finally, this survey illustrates TRACMIP’s potential to engender a deeper understanding of global and regional climate phenomena and to address pressing questions on past and future climate change.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1346297
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-123120; KP1703010
Journal Information:
Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 8, Issue 4; ISSN 1942-2466
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 46 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (6)

Sub-cloud moist entropy curvature as a predictor for changes in the seasonal cycle of tropical precipitation journal May 2019
Monsoon Responses to Climate Changes—Connecting Past, Present and Future journal March 2019
Energetic Constraints on the ITCZ Position in Idealized Simulations With a Seasonal Cycle journal July 2018
The Madden‐Julian Oscillation in an Aquaplanet‐Like General Circulation Model With and Without Continents journal May 2019
The Presence of Africa and Limited Soil Moisture Contribute to Future Drying of South America journal November 2019
Global energetics and local physics as drivers of past, present and future monsoons journal May 2018

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