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Climate tug of war disrupting Australian atmospheric circulation patterns
http://www.csiro.au/en/Portals/Media/Climate-tug-of-war-disrupting-Australian-atmospheric-circulation-patterns.aspx[font face=Serif][font size=5]Climate tug of war disrupting Australian atmospheric circulation patterns[/font]
[font size=4]Further evidence of climate change shifting atmospheric circulation in the southern Australian-New Zealand region has been identified in a new study.[/font]
21 June 2013
[font size=3]The study, in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, demonstrates that mid-latitude high pressure zones (30oS-45oS) are being pushed further into the Southern Ocean by rising global temperatures associated with greenhouse warming. This is despite more frequent occurrences of strong El Niños in recent decades, which should have drawn the high pressure zones in the opposite direction toward the equator.
"What we are seeing," says study lead author, Mr Guojian Wang "is a 'tug of war' between stronger El Niños driving the winds north and the greenhouse gas-warming effect driving the winds south".
Mr Wang, said the result confirms the robustness of the Southern Hemisphere circulation changes over the past three to four decades as the global temperature rose, "so much so that it overode the influence from strong El Niños during this period."
Study co-author, Dr Wenju Cai said the most conspicuous change is a rising sea level pressure in the mid-latitude bands and a decreasing sea level pressure over the Southern high latitudes (55o-70oS), a pattern referred to as the Southern Annular Mode. The changing pressures indicate a poleward or southward expansion of the tropical and subtropical atmospheric zones.
…[/font][/font]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep02039[font size=4]Further evidence of climate change shifting atmospheric circulation in the southern Australian-New Zealand region has been identified in a new study.[/font]
21 June 2013
[font size=3]The study, in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, demonstrates that mid-latitude high pressure zones (30oS-45oS) are being pushed further into the Southern Ocean by rising global temperatures associated with greenhouse warming. This is despite more frequent occurrences of strong El Niños in recent decades, which should have drawn the high pressure zones in the opposite direction toward the equator.
"What we are seeing," says study lead author, Mr Guojian Wang "is a 'tug of war' between stronger El Niños driving the winds north and the greenhouse gas-warming effect driving the winds south".
Mr Wang, said the result confirms the robustness of the Southern Hemisphere circulation changes over the past three to four decades as the global temperature rose, "so much so that it overode the influence from strong El Niños during this period."
Study co-author, Dr Wenju Cai said the most conspicuous change is a rising sea level pressure in the mid-latitude bands and a decreasing sea level pressure over the Southern high latitudes (55o-70oS), a pattern referred to as the Southern Annular Mode. The changing pressures indicate a poleward or southward expansion of the tropical and subtropical atmospheric zones.
…[/font][/font]
