Future change of Hadley Circulation intensity in CMIP5 models
Abstract
The change of the Hadley Circulation (HC) strength has been examined using historical and RCP 8.5 experiments in CMIP5. In this work, the HC intensity is newly defined as the vertically integrated mass-weighted stream function from surface to 100 hPa, while previous studies focus on the peak value of stream function to define the intensity. This new definition captures well the general characteristics of the Hadley cell: air rising motion near equator, flowing toward the pole, sinking in the subtropics, and then moving back toward the equator. In the future, the change of the HC intensity calculated using the new index shows asymmetric about the equator. The southern cell will be strengthened but the northern cell will be weakened.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFM.A53F0363K
- Keywords:
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- 3305 Climate change and variability;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSESDE: 3319 General circulation;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSESDE: 3339 Ocean/atmosphere interactions;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSESDE: 3373 Tropical dynamics;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES