Changes in the strength and width of the Hadley Circulation since 1871

Liu, J.; Song, Mirong; Hu, Yongyun; Ren, Xin

doi:10.5194/cp-8-1169-2012

Cited by 39 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Mountain glaciers are receding rapidly all around the world [26]–[29] with effects on seasonal freshwater availability of major rivers [30]–[32]. The hot dry subtropical climate belts have expanded as the troposphere has warmed and the stratosphere cooled [33]–[36], contributing to increases in the area and intensity of drought [37] and wildfires [38]. The abundance of reef-building corals is decreasing at a rate of 0.5–2%/year, at least in part due to ocean warming and possibly ocean acidification caused by rising dissolved CO 2 [39]–[41].…”

Section: Global Temperature and Earth’s Energy Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is evidence in satellite and radiosonde data and in observational data for poleward expansion of the tropical circulation by as much as a few degrees of latitude since the 1970s [34]–[35], but natural variability may have contributed to that expansion [36]. Change in the overturning circulation likely contributes to expansion of subtropical conditions and increased aridity in the southern United States [30], [100], the Mediterranean region, South America, southern Africa, Madagascar, and southern Australia.…”

Section: Climate Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing “Dangerous Climate Change”: Required Reduction of Carbon Emissions to Protect Young People, Future Generations and Nature

et al. 2013

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We assess climate impacts of global warming using ongoing observations and paleoclimate data. We use Earth’s measured energy imbalance, paleoclimate data, and simple representations of the global carbon cycle and temperature to define emission reductions needed to stabilize climate and avoid potentially disastrous impacts on today’s young people, future generations, and nature. A cumulative industrial-era limit of ∼500 GtC fossil fuel emissions and 100 GtC storage in the biosphere and soil would keep climate close to the Holocene range to which humanity and other species are adapted. Cumulative emissions of ∼1000 GtC, sometimes associated with 2°C global warming, would spur “slow” feedbacks and eventual warming of 3–4°C with disastrous consequences. Rapid emissions reduction is required to restore Earth’s energy balance and avoid ocean heat uptake that would practically guarantee irreversible effects. Continuation of high fossil fuel emissions, given current knowledge of the consequences, would be an act of extraordinary witting intergenerational injustice. Responsible policymaking requires a rising price on carbon emissions that would preclude emissions from most remaining coal and unconventional fossil fuels and phase down emissions from conventional fossil fuels.

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Section: Global Temperature and Earth’s Energy Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Climate Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing “Dangerous Climate Change”: Required Reduction of Carbon Emissions to Protect Young People, Future Generations and Nature

et al. 2013

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“…The CMIP5 models show fairly good agreement for a weakening of the northern hemispheric HC, with substantial disagreement over the response of the southern hemispheric cell (He and Soden, 2015;Ma and Xie, 2012;Vecchi and Soden, 2007). However, satellite observations and reanalysis data suggest that the HC has, in fact, strengthened rather than weakened since 1979 (Mitas and Clement, 2005;Liu et al, 2012). This apparent contradiction may be the result of poor model parameterization of clouds or convection (e.g., Mitas and Clement, 2006;Sohn et al, 2016) or due to natural variability.…”

mentioning

confidence: 90%

Changes to the tropical circulation in the mid-Pliocene and their implications for future climate

Corvec

Fletcher

2017

Clim. Past

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Abstract. The two components of the tropical overturning circulation, the meridional Hadley circulation (HC) and the zonal Walker circulation (WC), are key to the re-distribution of moisture, heat and mass in the atmosphere. The midPliocene Warm Period (mPWP; ∼ 3.3-3 Ma) is considered a very rough analogue of near-term future climate change, yet changes to the tropical overturning circulations in the mPWP are poorly understood. Here, climate model simulations from the Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project (PlioMIP) are analyzed to show that the tropical overturning circulations in the mPWP were weaker than preindustrial circulations, just as they are projected to be in future climate change. The weakening HC response is consistent with future projections, and its strength is strongly related to the meridional gradient of sea surface warming between the tropical and subtropical oceans. The weakening of the WC is less robust in PlioMIP than in future projections, largely due to inter-model variations in simulated warming of the tropical Indian Ocean (TIO). When the TIO warms faster (slower) than the tropical mean, local upper tropospheric divergence increases (decreases) and the WC weakens less (more). These results provide strong evidence that changes to the tropical overturning circulation in the mPWP and future climate are primarily controlled by zonal (WC) and meridional (HC) gradients in tropical-subtropical sea surface temperatures.

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“…The model predicts a weakening of circulation, in contrast to the strengthening, together with widening of the Hadley circulation for the past three decades observed by Liu et al (2012) and Hu and Fu (2007). However, Liu et al (2012) showed that if the observations start from 1870, the Hadley cell has become more narrow and stronger.…”

Section: Equinoctial Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Equilibrium temperature distribution and Hadley circulation in an axisymmetric model

Tartaglione

2015

Nonlin. Processes Geophys.

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Abstract. The impact of the equilibrium temperature distribution, θ E , on the Hadley circulation simulated by an axisymmetric model is studied. The θ E distributions that drive the model are modulated here by two parameters, n and k, the former controlling the horizontal broadness and the latter controlling the vertical stratification of θ E . In the present study, variations in the θ E distribution mimic changes in the energy input of the atmospheric system, leaving as almost invariant the Equator-poles θ E difference. Both equinoctial and time-dependent Hadley circulations are simulated and the results compared. The results give evidence that concentrated θ E distributions enhance the meridional circulation and jet wind speed intensities, even with a lower energy input. The meridional circulation and the subtropical jet stream widths are controlled by the broadness of horizontal θ E rather than by the vertical stratification, which is important only when θ E distribution is concentrated at the Equator. The jet stream position does not show any dependence with n and k, except when the θ E distribution is very wide (n = 3) and, in such a case, the jet is located at the mid-latitudes and the model temperature clamps to forcing θ E . Using n = 2 and k = 1, we have the formulation of the potential temperature adopted in the classical literature. A comparison with other works is performed, and our results show that the model running in different configurations (equinoctial, solstitial and time dependent) yields results similar to one another.

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Changes in the strength and width of the Hadley Circulation since 1871

Cited by 39 publications

References 28 publications

Assessing “Dangerous Climate Change”: Required Reduction of Carbon Emissions to Protect Young People, Future Generations and Nature

Assessing “Dangerous Climate Change”: Required Reduction of Carbon Emissions to Protect Young People, Future Generations and Nature

Changes to the tropical circulation in the mid-Pliocene and their implications for future climate

Equilibrium temperature distribution and Hadley circulation in an axisymmetric model

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