i
Changes in the width of the tropical belt due to simple radiative forcing changes in the GeoMIP simulations
-
2016
Source: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 16(15), 10083-10095.
[PDF-1.36 MB]
Details:
-
Journal Title:Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
-
Personal Author:
-
NOAA Program & Office:
-
Description:Model simulations of future climates predict a poleward expansion of subtropical arid climates at the edges of Earth's tropical belt, which would have significant environmental and societal impacts. This expansion may be related to the poleward shift of the Hadley cell edges, where subsidence stabilizes the atmosphere and suppresses precipitation. Understanding the primary drivers of tropical expansion is hampered by the myriad forcing agents in most model projections of future climate. While many previous studies have examined the response of idealized models to simplified climate forcings and the response of comprehensive climate models to more complex climate forcings, few have examined how comprehensive climate models respond to simplified climate forcings. To shed light on robust processes associated with tropical expansion, here we examine how the tropical belt width, as measured by the Hadley cell edges, responds to simplified forcings in the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP). The tropical belt expands in response to a quadrupling of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and contracts in response to a reduction in the solar constant, with a range of a factor of 3 in the response among nine models. Models with more surface warming and an overall stronger temperature response to quadrupled carbon dioxide exhibit greater tropical expansion, a robust result in spite of inter-model differences in the mean Hadley cell width, parameterizations, and numerical schemes. Under a scenario where the solar constant is reduced to offset an instantaneous quadrupling of carbon dioxide, the Hadley cells remain at their preindustrial width, despite the residual stratospheric cooling associated with elevated carbon dioxide levels. Quadrupled carbon dioxide produces greater tropical belt expansion in the Southern Hemisphere than in the Northern Hemisphere. This expansion is strongest in austral summer and autumn. Ozone depletion has been argued to cause this pattern of changes in observations and model experiments, but the results here indicate that seasonally and hemispherically asymmetric tropical expansion can be a basic response of the general circulation to climate forcings.
-
Source:Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 16(15), 10083-10095.
-
Document Type:
-
Rights Information:CC BY
-
Compliance:Submitted
-
Main Document Checksum:urn:sha256:066e4fe1c8665230cd60d5b087f7c0368484a6ec34f729958e302dfcd6a70d92
-
File Type:
Supporting Files
-
No Additional Files
More +
Related Documents
-
Personal Author:Tulich, S. N.2015 | Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 7(2), 938-962.Description:This paper describes a general method for the treatment of convective momentum transport (CMT) in large-scale dynamical solvers that use a cyclic, two...Personal Author:Cram, Thomas A. ;Compo, Gilbert P....2015 | Geoscience Data Journal, 2(1), 31-46.Description:The International Surface Pressure Databank (ISPD) is the world's largest collection of global surface and sea-level pressure observations. It was dev...2019 | Communications Biology, 2(1), 168.Description:Spatial planning increasingly incorporates theoretical predictions that artificial habitats assist species movement at or beyond range edges, yet evid...Personal Author:Andersson, Erik ;Day, Rusty...2019 | Metabolites, 9(2), 32.Description:The field of metabolomics generally lacks standardized methods for the preparation of samples prior to analysis. This is especially true for metabolom...2019 | Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 7(2), 27.Description:Long-term ecological monitoring of reef fish populations often requires the simultaneous collection of data on benthic habitats in order to account fo...2019 | Scientific Reports, 9(1), 16874.Description:Tsunamis can propagate thousands of kilometres across the ocean. Precise calculations of arrival times are essential for reliable early warning system...A Long-Term Fine-Resolution Record of AVHRR Surface Temperatures for the Laurentian Great LakesCitePersonal Author:White, Charles ;Heidinger, Andrew...2018 | Remote Sensing, 10(8), 20.Description:Inland waters are warming at highly variable rates that often differ from regional air temperature trends. This variable warming is partially attribut...2018 | Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, 123(11), 6022-6038.Description:Information about moisture distribution and transportation in the preconvection environment is very important for nowcasting and forecasting severe we...Personal Author:Liu, Yinghui ;Dworak, Richard...2018 | Remote Sensing, 10(12), 12.Description:Current methods for estimating the surface temperature of sea and lake ice-the ice surface temperature (IST)-utilize two satellite imager thermal band...Personal Author:Gochis, David ;Schumacher, Russ...2015 | Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 96(9), 1461-1487.Description:During the second week of September 2013, a seasonally uncharacteristic weather pattern stalled over the Rocky Mountain Front Range region of northern...2017 | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 17(2), 1417-1452.Description:The climate research community uses atmospheric reanalysis data sets to understand a wide range of processes and variability in the atmosphere, yet di...2018 | Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, 123(21), 12368-12393.Description:We examine the distribution and fate of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the lower troposphere over the Northeast United States (NE US) using aircraft observa...2017 | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 17(2), 1161-1186.Description:We report measurements of CH4 (measured in situ by the Harvard University Picarro Cavity Ringdown Spectrometer (HUPCRS) and NOAA Unmanned Aircraft Sys...2017 | Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 10(8), 2941-2968.Description:VOCs related to oil and gas extraction operations in the United States were measured by H3O+ chemical ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (H3O...2017 | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 17(8), 5331-5354.Description:Ambient pine forest air was oxidized by OH, O-3, or NO3 radicals using an oxidation flow reactor (OFR) during the BEACHON-RoMBAS (Bio-hydro-atmosphere...2017 | Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 9(1), 627-646.Description:Low and high clouds of shallow extent, especially stratocumulus and even more so for high-level cirrus clouds that reside where vertical resolution is...2017 | Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 10(5), 1911-1926.Description:The sum of all reactive nitrogen species (NOy) includes NOx (NO2 + NO) and all of its oxidized forms, and the accurate detection of NOy is critical to...Personal Author:Vander Woude, Andrea ;Ruberg, Steve...2019 | Journal of Great Lakes Research, 45(3), 536-546.Description:NOAA GLERL has routinely flown a hyperspectral imager to detect cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs) over the Great Lakes since 2015. Three ...Personal Author:Churnside, James ;Marchbanks, Richard...2017 | Remote Sensing, 9(4), 12.Description:The optical backscattering from particles in the ocean is an important quantity that has been measured by remote sensing techniques and in situ instru...2017 | Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, 122(7), 3944-3952.Description:In the current study, the electromagnetic properties of porous aerosol particles are calculated in two ways. In the first, a porous target input file ...
More +
You May Also Like
2018 | Geophysical Research Letters, 45(2), 1106-1113.
Description:
Climate models predict that the Hadley circulation will expand poleward in a warmer climate, a trend which may cause significant changes in global pre...
2015 | Geoscientific Model Development, 8(10), 3379-3392.
Description:
We present a suite of new climate model experiment designs for the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP). This set of experiments, nam...
Checkout today's featured content at repository.library.noaa.gov