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Connecting tropical climate change with Southern Ocean heat uptake
Author(s) -
Hwang YenTing,
Xie ShangPing,
Deser Clara,
Kang Sarah M.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2017gl074972
Subject(s) - climatology , tropics , equator , sea surface temperature , environmental science , southern hemisphere , tropical climate , climate model , ocean heat content , precipitation , la niña , monsoon , atmosphere (unit) , northern hemisphere , effects of global warming on oceans , tropical monsoon climate , climate change , global warming , atmospheric sciences , oceanography , geology , geography , latitude , el niño southern oscillation , meteorology , archaeology , biology , geodesy , fishery
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.