Journal article
Recent poleward shift of tropical cyclone formation linked to Hadley cell expansion
S Sharmila, KJE Walsh
Nature Climate Change | NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP | Published : 2018
Abstract
Recent research indicates that the annual-mean locations of tropical cyclones have migrated toward higher latitudes. Concurrently, an anthropogenically forced tropical expansion has been observed, yet the connection between the two processes remains little-explored. Here, using observational and reanalysis data, we investigate how large-scale dynamical effects, combined with coherent changes in the regional Hadley circulation, explain recent changes in regional tropical cyclone genesis over 1980–2014. We show that the recent anomalous upper-level weakening of the rising branch of the Hadley circulation in the deep tropics, possibly induced by the increased vertical stability, has likely supp..
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Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
This research was funded through the Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP150102272) and partially through the Earth System and Climate Change Hub of the Australian government's National Environmental Science Programme. The authors thank J.P. Kossin for his critical comments and valuable suggestions that improved the quality of the paper. S.S. acknowledges K. Emanuel (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), S. Camargo (Columbia University) and H. Hendon (Bureau of Meteorology) for valuable discussions. The assistance of resources from the National Computational Infrastructure supported by the Australian Government and the World Climate Research Programme's Working Group on Coupled Modelling for available model output are duly acknowledged.