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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Keywords

  • anthropogenic aerosols
  • atmospheric circulation
  • poleward shift

Index Terms

  • Atmospheric Processes: Ocean/atmosphere interactions
  • Global Change: Atmosphere
  • Global Change: Oceans
  • Atmospheric Processes: Climate change and variability
  • Atmospheric Processes: General circulation

Abstract

Impacts of increasing anthropogenic aerosols on the atmospheric circulation trends of the Southern Hemisphere: An air-sea positive feedback

Wenju Cai

Marine and Atmospheric Research, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Aspendale, Victoria, Australia

Wealth from Oceans National Research Flagship, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia

Tim Cowan

Marine and Atmospheric Research, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Aspendale, Victoria, Australia

Wealth from Oceans National Research Flagship, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia

A recent model study shows that in response to an increasing aerosol forcing, the Southern Hemisphere (SH) ocean circulation, including the Agulhas outflow, its retroflection, and the entire subtropical gyre circulation intensify and shift polewards. Are these oceanic responses manifested in the SH atmospheric circulation? We demonstrate that as a result of the poleward shift, maximum sea surface temperature (SST) gradients, midlatitude storms and the westerly jet shift southward, intensifying the trend of the southern annular mode (SAM). Because the response of the atmospheric circulation to the underlying oceanic anomalies is equivalent barotropic, a poleward shift and intensification in zonal wind and vertical velocities are generated from the atmosphere-ocean interface to the middle troposphere. These atmospheric circulation responses, in turn, reinforce the ocean circulation changes. This constitutes an air-sea positive feedback. Our results illustrate an impact of Northern Hemisphere (NH) aerosols on the SH atmospheric circulation trends through a SH ocean circulation response.

Received 21 August 2007; accepted 9 November 2007; published 13 December 2007.

Citation: Cai, W., and T. Cowan (2007), Impacts of increasing anthropogenic aerosols on the atmospheric circulation trends of the Southern Hemisphere: An air-sea positive feedback, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L23709, doi:10.1029/2007GL031706.

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