Open AccessRegional response of annual‐mean tropical rainfall to global warming
Author(s) -
Huang Ping
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
atmospheric science letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.951
H-Index - 45
ISSN - 1530-261X
DOI - 10.1002/asl2.475
Subject(s) - climatology , sea surface temperature , environmental science , global warming , tropical cyclone , walker circulation , coupled model intercomparison project , tropics , tropical atlantic , climate model , general circulation model , climate change , atmospheric sciences , geology , oceanography , fishery , biology
Regional response of annual‐mean tropical rainfall to global warming is investigated based on 18 models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5. With surface warming, the climatological ascending circulation pumps up increased surface moisture and leads to a rainfall increase over the convergence zone, while the change in ascending flow induces a rainfall increase over the region with sea surface temperature ( SST ) increase exceeding the tropical mean, with a concomitant modification of background surface moisture and SST . These two effects form a hook‐like pattern of rainfall change over the tropical Pacific and an elliptic pattern over the northern Indian Ocean .