Connecting tropical climate change with Southern Ocean heat uptake
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Journal Volume
44
Journal Issue
18
Pages
9449--9457
Date Issued
2017-09
Author(s)
Abstract
Under increasing greenhouse gas forcing, climate models project tropical warming that is greater in the Northern than the Southern Hemisphere, accompanied by a reduction in the northeast trade winds and a strengthening of the southeast trades. While the ocean-atmosphere coupling indicates a positive feedback, what triggers the coupled asymmetry and favors greater warming in the northern tropics remains unclear. Far away from the tropics, the Southern Ocean (SO) has been identified as the major region of ocean heat uptake. Beyond its local effect on the magnitude of sea surface warming, we show by idealized modeling experiments in a coupled slab ocean configuration that enhanced SO heat uptake has a profound global impact. This SO-to-tropics connection is consistent with southward atmospheric energy transport across the equator. Enhanced SO heat uptake results in a zonally asymmetric La-Nina-like pattern of sea surface temperature change that not only affects tropical precipitation but also has influences on the Asian and North American monsoons. ©2017. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
Subjects
global warming; heat uptake; teleconnection
SDGs
Other Subjects
Atmospheric movements; Climate change; Climate models; Commerce; Global warming; Greenhouse gases; Oceanography; Submarine geophysics; Surface waters; Atmospheric energy; Greenhouse-gas forcing; Ocean heat uptake; Sea-surface temperature change; Southern Hemisphere; Teleconnections; Tropical climates; Tropical precipitation; Tropics; atmosphere-ocean coupling; atmospheric transport; climate modeling; greenhouse gas; La Nina; Northern Hemisphere; precipitation (climatology); sea surface temperature; teleconnection; tropical environment; Asia; North America; Southern Ocean
Type
journal article