Hydrologic Impacts of Past Shifts of Earth’s Thermal Equator Offer Insight into Those to be Produced by Fossil Fuel CO2

Major changes in global rainfall patterns accompanied a northward shift of Earth’s thermal equator at the onset of an abrupt climate change 14.6 kya. This northward pull of Earth’s wind and rain belts stemmed from disintegration of North Atlantic winter sea ice cover, which steepened the interhemisp...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Broecker, Wallace S., Putnam, Aaron Ervin
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: National Academy of Sciences 2014
Subjects:
Kya
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.7916/D8V122RK
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spelling ftcolumbiauniv:oai:academiccommons.columbia.edu:10.7916/D8V122RK 2023-05-15T17:33:06+02:00 Hydrologic Impacts of Past Shifts of Earth’s Thermal Equator Offer Insight into Those to be Produced by Fossil Fuel CO2 Broecker, Wallace S. Putnam, Aaron Ervin 2014 https://doi.org/10.7916/D8V122RK English eng National Academy of Sciences https://doi.org/10.7916/D8V122RK Atmosphere Meteorology Paleoclimatology Articles 2014 ftcolumbiauniv https://doi.org/10.7916/D8V122RK 2019-04-04T08:10:30Z Major changes in global rainfall patterns accompanied a northward shift of Earth’s thermal equator at the onset of an abrupt climate change 14.6 kya. This northward pull of Earth’s wind and rain belts stemmed from disintegration of North Atlantic winter sea ice cover, which steepened the interhemispheric meridional temperature gradient. A southward migration of Earth’s thermal equator may have accompanied the more recent Medieval Warm to Little Ice Age climate transition in the Northern Hemisphere. As fossil fuel CO2 warms the planet, the continents of the Northern Hemisphere are expected to warm faster than the Southern Hemisphere oceans. Therefore, we predict that a northward shift of Earth’s thermal equator, initiated by an increased interhemispheric temperature contrast, may well produce hydrologic changes similar to those that occurred during past Northern Hemisphere warm periods. If so, the American West, the Middle East, and southern Amazonia will become drier, and monsoonal Asia, Venezuela, and equatorial Africa will become wetter. Additional paleoclimate data should be acquired and model simulations should be conducted to evaluate the reliability of this analog. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Sea ice Columbia University: Academic Commons Kya ENVELOPE(8.308,8.308,63.772,63.772)
institution Open Polar
collection Columbia University: Academic Commons
op_collection_id ftcolumbiauniv
language English
topic Atmosphere
Meteorology
Paleoclimatology
spellingShingle Atmosphere
Meteorology
Paleoclimatology
Broecker, Wallace S.
Putnam, Aaron Ervin
Hydrologic Impacts of Past Shifts of Earth’s Thermal Equator Offer Insight into Those to be Produced by Fossil Fuel CO2
topic_facet Atmosphere
Meteorology
Paleoclimatology
description Major changes in global rainfall patterns accompanied a northward shift of Earth’s thermal equator at the onset of an abrupt climate change 14.6 kya. This northward pull of Earth’s wind and rain belts stemmed from disintegration of North Atlantic winter sea ice cover, which steepened the interhemispheric meridional temperature gradient. A southward migration of Earth’s thermal equator may have accompanied the more recent Medieval Warm to Little Ice Age climate transition in the Northern Hemisphere. As fossil fuel CO2 warms the planet, the continents of the Northern Hemisphere are expected to warm faster than the Southern Hemisphere oceans. Therefore, we predict that a northward shift of Earth’s thermal equator, initiated by an increased interhemispheric temperature contrast, may well produce hydrologic changes similar to those that occurred during past Northern Hemisphere warm periods. If so, the American West, the Middle East, and southern Amazonia will become drier, and monsoonal Asia, Venezuela, and equatorial Africa will become wetter. Additional paleoclimate data should be acquired and model simulations should be conducted to evaluate the reliability of this analog.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Broecker, Wallace S.
Putnam, Aaron Ervin
author_facet Broecker, Wallace S.
Putnam, Aaron Ervin
author_sort Broecker, Wallace S.
title Hydrologic Impacts of Past Shifts of Earth’s Thermal Equator Offer Insight into Those to be Produced by Fossil Fuel CO2
title_short Hydrologic Impacts of Past Shifts of Earth’s Thermal Equator Offer Insight into Those to be Produced by Fossil Fuel CO2
title_full Hydrologic Impacts of Past Shifts of Earth’s Thermal Equator Offer Insight into Those to be Produced by Fossil Fuel CO2
title_fullStr Hydrologic Impacts of Past Shifts of Earth’s Thermal Equator Offer Insight into Those to be Produced by Fossil Fuel CO2
title_full_unstemmed Hydrologic Impacts of Past Shifts of Earth’s Thermal Equator Offer Insight into Those to be Produced by Fossil Fuel CO2
title_sort hydrologic impacts of past shifts of earth’s thermal equator offer insight into those to be produced by fossil fuel co2
publisher National Academy of Sciences
publishDate 2014
url https://doi.org/10.7916/D8V122RK
long_lat ENVELOPE(8.308,8.308,63.772,63.772)
geographic Kya
geographic_facet Kya
genre North Atlantic
Sea ice
genre_facet North Atlantic
Sea ice
op_relation https://doi.org/10.7916/D8V122RK
op_doi https://doi.org/10.7916/D8V122RK
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