TY - JOUR
T1 - Factors controlling Hadley circulation changes from the Last Glacial Maximum to the end of the 21st century
AU - D'Agostino, Roberta
AU - Lionello, Piero
AU - Adam, Ori
AU - Schneider, Tapio
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
©2017. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2017/8/28
Y1 - 2017/8/28
N2 - The Hadley circulation (HC) extent and strength are analyzed in a wide range of simulated climates from the Last Glacial Maximum to global warming scenarios. Motivated by HC theories, we analyze how the HC is influenced by the subtropical stability, the near-surface meridional potential temperature gradient, and the tropical tropopause level. The subtropical static stability accounts for the bulk of the HC changes across the simulations. However, since it correlates strongly with global mean surface temperature, most HC changes can be attributed to global mean surface temperature changes. The HC widens as the climate warms, and it also weakens, but only robustly so in the Northern Hemisphere. On the other hand, the Southern Hemisphere strength response is uncertain, in part because subtropical static stability changes counteract meridional potential temperature gradient changes to various degrees in different models, with no consensus on the response of the latter to global warming.
AB - The Hadley circulation (HC) extent and strength are analyzed in a wide range of simulated climates from the Last Glacial Maximum to global warming scenarios. Motivated by HC theories, we analyze how the HC is influenced by the subtropical stability, the near-surface meridional potential temperature gradient, and the tropical tropopause level. The subtropical static stability accounts for the bulk of the HC changes across the simulations. However, since it correlates strongly with global mean surface temperature, most HC changes can be attributed to global mean surface temperature changes. The HC widens as the climate warms, and it also weakens, but only robustly so in the Northern Hemisphere. On the other hand, the Southern Hemisphere strength response is uncertain, in part because subtropical static stability changes counteract meridional potential temperature gradient changes to various degrees in different models, with no consensus on the response of the latter to global warming.
KW - Hadley circulation
KW - PMIP3-CMIP5 climate models
KW - climate change
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85028884262&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/2017GL074533
DO - 10.1002/2017GL074533
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AN - SCOPUS:85028884262
SN - 0094-8276
VL - 44
SP - 8585
EP - 8591
JO - Geophysical Research Letters
JF - Geophysical Research Letters
IS - 16
ER -