Decreased Response Contrast of Hadley Circulation to the Equatorially Asymmetric and Symmetric Tropical SST Structures during the Recent Hiatus

Abstract

Variations of the Hadley circulation (HC) are influenced by the underlying sea surface temperature (SST). The contrasting response of the HC to meridional structure of SST is examined between two periods, one prior to and the other during the recent warming hiatus (i.e., 1979−1998 and 1999−2015). By decomposing the variations of HC and SST into equatorially asymmetric (HEA for HC; SEA for SST) and symmetric components (HES for HC; SES for SST), the HEA response to SEA and the HES response to SES are quantitatively analyzed. Multiple reanalyses consistently indicate that the ratio of the response of HEA to SEA with respect to that of HES to SES is clearly decreased in the period 1999−2015. This is because the response of HEA to SEA is suppressed in this period, while the response of HES to SES is enhanced, suggesting a corresponding change in the air-sea interactions involved during the two periods. Further examination found that the variation of SST over Pacific may play an important role in determining the reduced response ratio of HC to SST in the recent hiatus.(Citation: Feng, J., J. Li, Y. Wang, and Y. Guo, 2017: Decreas ed response contrast of Hadley circulation to the equatorially asymmetric and symmetric tropical SST structures during the recent hiatus. SOLA, 13, 181−185,

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