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Extent of Hadley circulations in dry atmospheres
Author(s) -
Korty Robert L.,
Schneider Tapio
Publication year - 2008
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 - 10.1029/2008gl035847
Subject(s) - hadley cell , troposphere , climatology , atmospheric sciences , zonal and meridional , environmental science , extratropical cyclone , walker circulation , atmospheric circulation , geology , general circulation model , climate change , sea surface temperature , oceanography
The subtropical terminus of the Hadley circulation is interpreted as the latitude poleward of which vertical wave activity fluxes (meridional eddy entropy fluxes) become sufficiently deep to reach the upper troposphere. This leads to a sign change of the upper‐tropospheric divergence of meridional wave activity fluxes (convergence of meridional eddy angular momentum fluxes) and marks the transition from the tropical Hadley cell to the extratropical Ferrel cell. A quantitative formulation for determining the depth of vertical wave activity fluxes and thus the terminus of the Hadley circulation is proposed based on the supercriticality, a measure of the slope of isentropes. The supercriticality assumes an approximately constant value at the terminus of the Hadley circulation in a series of simulations with an idealized dry general circulation model. However, it is unclear how to generalize this supercriticality‐based formulation to moist atmospheres.