The Hadley circulation in a changing climate

Lionello, P., D'Agostino, R., Ferreira, D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3243-9774, Nguyen, H. and Singh, M. S. (2024) The Hadley circulation in a changing climate. Annals of New York Academy of Science, 1534 (1). pp. 69-93. ISSN 1749-6632 doi: 10.1111/nyas.15114

Abstract/Summary

The Hadley circulation (HC) is a global-scale atmospheric feature with air descending in the subtropics and ascending in the tropics, which plays a fundamental role in Earth’s climate because it transports energy polewards and moisture equatorwards. Theoretically, as a consequence of anthropogenic climate change, the HC is expected to expand polewards, while indications on the HC strength are equivocal, as weakening and strengthening are expected in response to different mechanisms. In fact, there is a general agreement among reanalyses and climate simulations that the HC has significantly widened in the last four decades and it will continue widening in the future, but no consensus on past and future changes of the HC strength. Substantial uncertainties are produced by the effects of natural variability, structural deficiencies in climate models and reanalyses, and the influence of other forcing factors, such as anthropogenic aerosols, black carbon, and stratospheric and tropospheric ozone. The global HC can be decomposedin three regional HCs, associated with ascending motion above Equatorial Africa, the Maritime Continent, and Equatorial America, which have evolved differently during the last decades. Climate projections suggest a generalized expansion in the Southern Hemisphere, but a complex regional expansion/contraction pattern in the Northern Hemisphere.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/115307
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher	Wiley
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