Long-term impact of Amazon river runoff on northern hemispheric climate
Amazon discharges a large volume of freshwater into the ocean, yet its impact on climate is largely unknown. Climate projections show that a warmer northern tropical Atlantic Ocean together with a warmer equatorial Pacific lead to extreme droughts in the Amazonia, considerably reducing the Amazon ru...
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ftindianacasci:oai:repository.ias.ac.in:120430 2023-09-26T15:15:00+02:00 Long-term impact of Amazon river runoff on northern hemispheric climate Jahfer, S. Vinayachandran, P. N. Nanjundiah, Ravi S. 2017 http://repository.ias.ac.in/120430/ https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-10750-y unknown Nature Publishing Group Jahfer, S. Vinayachandran, P. N. Nanjundiah, Ravi S. (2017) Long-term impact of Amazon river runoff on northern hemispheric climate Scientific Reports, 7 (1). ISSN 2045-2322 QE Geology Article PeerReviewed 2017 ftindianacasci https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-10750-y 2023-08-26T18:20:37Z Amazon discharges a large volume of freshwater into the ocean, yet its impact on climate is largely unknown. Climate projections show that a warmer northern tropical Atlantic Ocean together with a warmer equatorial Pacific lead to extreme droughts in the Amazonia, considerably reducing the Amazon runoff. Here we present results from coupled model simulations and observations on the climatic response to a significant reduction in Amazon runoff into the Atlantic Ocean. Climate model simulation without Amazon runoff resulted in cooler equatorial Atlantic, weakening the Hadley cell and thereby the atmospheric meridional cells. Consequently, the extratropical westerlies turned weaker, leading to prevalent negative North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) like climate, similar to the observed anomalies during Amazon drought years. This study reaffirms that spatial signature of NAO is in part driven by sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the tropical Atlantic. Winters of northern Europe and eastern Canada turned cooler and drier whereas southern Europe and the eastern United States experienced warmer and wetter winters without Amazon runoff. Significant warming over the Arctic reduced the local sea-ice extent and enhanced the high latitude river runoff. More importantly, our simulations caution against extreme exploitation of rivers for its far-reaching consequences on climate. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation Sea ice Indian Academy of Sciences: Publication of Fellows Arctic Canada Pacific Scientific Reports 7 1 |
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Indian Academy of Sciences: Publication of Fellows |
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QE Geology |
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QE Geology Jahfer, S. Vinayachandran, P. N. Nanjundiah, Ravi S. Long-term impact of Amazon river runoff on northern hemispheric climate |
topic_facet |
QE Geology |
description |
Amazon discharges a large volume of freshwater into the ocean, yet its impact on climate is largely unknown. Climate projections show that a warmer northern tropical Atlantic Ocean together with a warmer equatorial Pacific lead to extreme droughts in the Amazonia, considerably reducing the Amazon runoff. Here we present results from coupled model simulations and observations on the climatic response to a significant reduction in Amazon runoff into the Atlantic Ocean. Climate model simulation without Amazon runoff resulted in cooler equatorial Atlantic, weakening the Hadley cell and thereby the atmospheric meridional cells. Consequently, the extratropical westerlies turned weaker, leading to prevalent negative North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) like climate, similar to the observed anomalies during Amazon drought years. This study reaffirms that spatial signature of NAO is in part driven by sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the tropical Atlantic. Winters of northern Europe and eastern Canada turned cooler and drier whereas southern Europe and the eastern United States experienced warmer and wetter winters without Amazon runoff. Significant warming over the Arctic reduced the local sea-ice extent and enhanced the high latitude river runoff. More importantly, our simulations caution against extreme exploitation of rivers for its far-reaching consequences on climate. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jahfer, S. Vinayachandran, P. N. Nanjundiah, Ravi S. |
author_facet |
Jahfer, S. Vinayachandran, P. N. Nanjundiah, Ravi S. |
author_sort |
Jahfer, S. |
title |
Long-term impact of Amazon river runoff on northern hemispheric climate |
title_short |
Long-term impact of Amazon river runoff on northern hemispheric climate |
title_full |
Long-term impact of Amazon river runoff on northern hemispheric climate |
title_fullStr |
Long-term impact of Amazon river runoff on northern hemispheric climate |
title_full_unstemmed |
Long-term impact of Amazon river runoff on northern hemispheric climate |
title_sort |
long-term impact of amazon river runoff on northern hemispheric climate |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://repository.ias.ac.in/120430/ https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-10750-y |
geographic |
Arctic Canada Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Canada Pacific |
genre |
Arctic North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation Sea ice |
op_relation |
Jahfer, S. Vinayachandran, P. N. Nanjundiah, Ravi S. (2017) Long-term impact of Amazon river runoff on northern hemispheric climate Scientific Reports, 7 (1). ISSN 2045-2322 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-10750-y |
container_title |
Scientific Reports |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1778135929026772992 |