The effect of the prescription of zonally‐uniform sea surface temperatures in a general circulation model

Abstract

To assess the impact on the global atmospheric circulation of zonally‐varying sea surface temperature (SST), a general circulation model experiment has been run in which this variation has been removed for a January climate simulation. This results in an adjustment of the atmospheric parameters on a global scale, and particularly in the tropics. Surface pressure increases and rainfall decreases in the Australian‐Indonesian region and rainfall increases in the east Pacific and over Peru. Large changes occur in the Walker‐type circulations along the equator. Even though the mean meridional SST gradient is left unchanged in the experiment, the modelled Hadley cells are, perhaps surprisingly, we..