Tropical Pacific response to continental ice sheet topography
The last glacial maximum was marked by maximum land ice extent and lowest greenhouse gases concentration during the last ice age. We explore the impact of glacial continental ice sheet topography on the large-scale tropical ocean–atmosphere climate, in particular the tropical Pacific, in an intermed...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org/ark:/13030/qt0j77g8nm 2023-05-15T16:40:03+02:00 Tropical Pacific response to continental ice sheet topography Lee, SY Chiang, JCH Chang, P 2429 - 2446 2015-05-01 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0j77g8nm unknown eScholarship, University of California qt0j77g8nm https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0j77g8nm public Climate Dynamics, vol 44, iss 9-10 Last glacial maximum Ice sheet topography Tropical Pacific thermal gradient General circulation model Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences Atmospheric Sciences Oceanography Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience article 2015 ftcdlib 2021-03-28T08:19:10Z The last glacial maximum was marked by maximum land ice extent and lowest greenhouse gases concentration during the last ice age. We explore the impact of glacial continental ice sheet topography on the large-scale tropical ocean–atmosphere climate, in particular the tropical Pacific, in an intermediate complexity coupled model. Increasing the thickness of continental ice sheets causes a southward displaced Pacific Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and a strengthening (weakening) of northern (southern) hemisphere winter Hadley cell. The equatorial zonal sea surface temperature gradient weakened with an increased continental ice sheets thickness, the reduction being caused by cooling in the western equatorial Pacific and warming in the eastern equatorial Pacific. The evolution of the tropical climate with changing ice thickness has distinct quasi-linear and nonlinear parts. While the linear part is a direct response to the ice topographic changes, the nonlinear part was a result of the tropical thermocline adjustment. Our analysis of a fully-coupled transient deglacial simulation strongly indicates the dominant role of ice sheet topography in determining the deglacial evolution of the simulated Pacific climate. The thickness of continental ice sheet, separate from ice albedo effect, has significant impact on the tropical ocean–atmosphere climate in particular with the meridional displacement in the Pacific ITCZ. The altered circulation states seen in the model may aid understanding of the relationship between tropical and high-latitude climate records in glacial-interglacial cycles. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ice Sheet University of California: eScholarship Pacific |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Last glacial maximum Ice sheet topography Tropical Pacific thermal gradient General circulation model Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences Atmospheric Sciences Oceanography Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience |
spellingShingle |
Last glacial maximum Ice sheet topography Tropical Pacific thermal gradient General circulation model Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences Atmospheric Sciences Oceanography Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience Lee, SY Chiang, JCH Chang, P Tropical Pacific response to continental ice sheet topography |
topic_facet |
Last glacial maximum Ice sheet topography Tropical Pacific thermal gradient General circulation model Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences Atmospheric Sciences Oceanography Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience |
description |
The last glacial maximum was marked by maximum land ice extent and lowest greenhouse gases concentration during the last ice age. We explore the impact of glacial continental ice sheet topography on the large-scale tropical ocean–atmosphere climate, in particular the tropical Pacific, in an intermediate complexity coupled model. Increasing the thickness of continental ice sheets causes a southward displaced Pacific Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and a strengthening (weakening) of northern (southern) hemisphere winter Hadley cell. The equatorial zonal sea surface temperature gradient weakened with an increased continental ice sheets thickness, the reduction being caused by cooling in the western equatorial Pacific and warming in the eastern equatorial Pacific. The evolution of the tropical climate with changing ice thickness has distinct quasi-linear and nonlinear parts. While the linear part is a direct response to the ice topographic changes, the nonlinear part was a result of the tropical thermocline adjustment. Our analysis of a fully-coupled transient deglacial simulation strongly indicates the dominant role of ice sheet topography in determining the deglacial evolution of the simulated Pacific climate. The thickness of continental ice sheet, separate from ice albedo effect, has significant impact on the tropical ocean–atmosphere climate in particular with the meridional displacement in the Pacific ITCZ. The altered circulation states seen in the model may aid understanding of the relationship between tropical and high-latitude climate records in glacial-interglacial cycles. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lee, SY Chiang, JCH Chang, P |
author_facet |
Lee, SY Chiang, JCH Chang, P |
author_sort |
Lee, SY |
title |
Tropical Pacific response to continental ice sheet topography |
title_short |
Tropical Pacific response to continental ice sheet topography |
title_full |
Tropical Pacific response to continental ice sheet topography |
title_fullStr |
Tropical Pacific response to continental ice sheet topography |
title_full_unstemmed |
Tropical Pacific response to continental ice sheet topography |
title_sort |
tropical pacific response to continental ice sheet topography |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0j77g8nm |
op_coverage |
2429 - 2446 |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Climate Dynamics, vol 44, iss 9-10 |
op_relation |
qt0j77g8nm https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0j77g8nm |
op_rights |
public |
_version_ |
1766030421137555456 |