Hydrological cycle changes explain weak snowball earth storm track despite increased surface baroclinicity
Simulations show that storm tracks were weaker during past cold, icy climates relative to the modern climate despite increased surface baroclinicity. Previous work explained the weak North Atlantic storm track during the Last Glacial Maximum using dry zonally asymmetric mechanisms associated with or...
Published in: | Geophysical Research Letters |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Wiley
2021
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL089866 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:51234d36-f73b-4d10-b4ce-d29b9f9eb7fa |
id |
ftuloxford:oai:ora.ox.ac.uk:uuid:51234d36-f73b-4d10-b4ce-d29b9f9eb7fa |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftuloxford:oai:ora.ox.ac.uk:uuid:51234d36-f73b-4d10-b4ce-d29b9f9eb7fa 2024-09-30T14:39:32+00:00 Hydrological cycle changes explain weak snowball earth storm track despite increased surface baroclinicity Shaw, TA Graham, RJ 2021-01-13 https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL089866 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:51234d36-f73b-4d10-b4ce-d29b9f9eb7fa eng eng Wiley doi:10.1029/2020GL089866 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:51234d36-f73b-4d10-b4ce-d29b9f9eb7fa https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL089866 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess CC Attribution (CC BY) Journal article 2021 ftuloxford https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL089866 2024-09-06T07:47:33Z Simulations show that storm tracks were weaker during past cold, icy climates relative to the modern climate despite increased surface baroclinicity. Previous work explained the weak North Atlantic storm track during the Last Glacial Maximum using dry zonally asymmetric mechanisms associated with orographic forcing. Here we show that zonally symmetric mechanisms associated with the hydrological cycle explain the weak Snowball Earth storm track. The weak storm track is consistent with the decreased meridional gradient of evaporation and atmospheric shortwave absorption and can be predicted following global mean cooling and the Clausius-Clapeyron relation. The weak storm track is also consistent with decreased latent heat release aloft in the tropics, which decreases upper tropospheric baroclinicity and mean available potential energy. Overall, both hydrological cycle mechanisms are reflected in the significant correlation between storm track intensity and the meridional surface moist static energy gradient across a range of simulated climates between modern and Snowball Earth. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic ORA - Oxford University Research Archive Geophysical Research Letters 47 20 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
ORA - Oxford University Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftuloxford |
language |
English |
description |
Simulations show that storm tracks were weaker during past cold, icy climates relative to the modern climate despite increased surface baroclinicity. Previous work explained the weak North Atlantic storm track during the Last Glacial Maximum using dry zonally asymmetric mechanisms associated with orographic forcing. Here we show that zonally symmetric mechanisms associated with the hydrological cycle explain the weak Snowball Earth storm track. The weak storm track is consistent with the decreased meridional gradient of evaporation and atmospheric shortwave absorption and can be predicted following global mean cooling and the Clausius-Clapeyron relation. The weak storm track is also consistent with decreased latent heat release aloft in the tropics, which decreases upper tropospheric baroclinicity and mean available potential energy. Overall, both hydrological cycle mechanisms are reflected in the significant correlation between storm track intensity and the meridional surface moist static energy gradient across a range of simulated climates between modern and Snowball Earth. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Shaw, TA Graham, RJ |
spellingShingle |
Shaw, TA Graham, RJ Hydrological cycle changes explain weak snowball earth storm track despite increased surface baroclinicity |
author_facet |
Shaw, TA Graham, RJ |
author_sort |
Shaw, TA |
title |
Hydrological cycle changes explain weak snowball earth storm track despite increased surface baroclinicity |
title_short |
Hydrological cycle changes explain weak snowball earth storm track despite increased surface baroclinicity |
title_full |
Hydrological cycle changes explain weak snowball earth storm track despite increased surface baroclinicity |
title_fullStr |
Hydrological cycle changes explain weak snowball earth storm track despite increased surface baroclinicity |
title_full_unstemmed |
Hydrological cycle changes explain weak snowball earth storm track despite increased surface baroclinicity |
title_sort |
hydrological cycle changes explain weak snowball earth storm track despite increased surface baroclinicity |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL089866 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:51234d36-f73b-4d10-b4ce-d29b9f9eb7fa |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
doi:10.1029/2020GL089866 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:51234d36-f73b-4d10-b4ce-d29b9f9eb7fa https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL089866 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess CC Attribution (CC BY) |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL089866 |
container_title |
Geophysical Research Letters |
container_volume |
47 |
container_issue |
20 |
_version_ |
1811642150158336000 |