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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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) |
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Open Polar |
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Columbia University: Academic Commons |
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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 |
_version_ |
1766131498983882752 |