Observed poleward expansion of the Hadley circulation since 1979

By Yongyun Hu, Q. Fu. 2007

486 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Using three meteorological reanalyses and three outgoing long-wave radiation (OLR) datasets, we show that the Hadley circulation has a significant expansion of about 2 to 4.5 degrees of latitude since 1979. The three reanalyses all indicate that the poleward expansion of the Hadley circulation in each hemisphere occurs during its summer and fall seasons. Results from the OLR datasets do not have such seasonality. The expansion of the Hadley circulation implies a poleward expansion of the band of subtropical subsidence, leading to enhanced mid-latitude tropospheric warming and poleward shifts of the subtropical dry zone. This would contribute to an increased frequency of midlatitude droughts in both hemispheres.

Subfields: Atmospheric Science, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/33c6c516c0a1b5bbc2b3b717560b382c4e4a3175

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Citations in the corpus

Impact of stratospheric ozone on Southern Hemisphere circulation change: A multimodel assessment (2010, background): “…side of the climatological jet, which is often described as a positive trend in the annular modes [ Thompson et al. , 2000; Chen and Held , 2007], and the poleward expansion (or widening) of the Hadley cell [ Fu et al. , 2006; Hu and Fu , 2007; Seidel et al. , 2008; Johanson and Fu , 2009].”
The Hadley Circulation in Reanalyses: Climatology, Variability, and Change (2013, methodology): “88 decade(21), with little difference between the hemispheres (Hu and Fu 2007; Davis and Rosenlof 2012).”
Assessment of global warming on the island of Tenerife, Canary Islands (Spain). Trends in minimum, maximum and mean temperatures since 1944 (2012, background): “…lower limit of this cloud layer could be losing altitude in summer, and the recently discovered poleward expansion of the Hadley cell associated with the constancy and frequency of the northeast trade-winds (Hu and Fu 2007; Seidel et al. 2008) could affect wind movement and consequently this layer.”
Response of the large‐scale structure of the atmosphere to global warming (2015, background): “(2007); Joshi et al. (2008); Kamae et al.”
THE EXTRATROPICAL UPPER TROPOSPHERE AND LOWER STRATOSPHERE (2011, background): “…of the tropics comes from changes in subtropical tropopause height [ Seidel and Randel , 2007; Birner , 2010b] ozone [ Hudson et al. , 2006], tropo-spheric circulation [ Hu and Fu , 2007], temperatures [ Fu et al. , 2006], and the separation between the subtropical jets [ Seidel et al. , 2008].”