Circulation responses to surface heating and implications for polar amplification

• Main Authors: Siew, Peter Yu Feng, Li, Camille, Sobolowski, Stefan Pieter, Dunn-Sigouin, Etienne, Ting, Mingfang
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2024
• Subjects: article; Verlagsveröffentlichung; Hoskins; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-3066; https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00070840; https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00069169/egusphere-2023-3066.pdf; https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2024/egusphere-2023-3066/egusphere-2023-3066.pdf

A seminal study by Hoskins and Karoly (1981) explored the atmospheric circulation response to tropospheric heating perturbations at low and mid latitudes. Here we revisit and extend their study by investigating the circulation and temperature response to low, mid and high latitude surface heating using an idealised moist, gray radiation model. Our results corroborate previous findings showing that heating perturbations at low and mid latitudes are balanced by different mean circulation responses - upward motion and horizontal temperature advection, respectively. Transient eddy heat flux divergence plays an increasingly important role with latitude, becoming the main circulation response at high latitudes. However, this mechanism is less efficient at balancing heating perturbations than temperature advection, leading to greater reliance on an additional contribution from radiative cooling. These dynamical and radiative adjustments promote stronger lower tropospheric warming for surface heating at high latitudes compared with lower latitudes, suggesting a mechanism by which sea ice loss promotes a polar-amplified temperature signal of climate change.