Data · dataset · 2026
Understanding the anthropogenically forced change of equatorial Pacific trade winds in coupled climate models
Listed in National Center for Atmospheric Research
Understanding the change of equatorial Pacific trade winds is pivotal for understanding the global mean temperature change and the El NiñoâSouthern Oscillation (ENSO) property change.
Description
The weakening of the Walker circulation due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) forcing was suggested as one of the most robust phenomena in current climate models by examining zonal sea level pressure gradient over the tropical Pacific.
This study explores another component of the Walker circulation change focusing on equatorial Pacific trade wind change. Model sensitivity experiments demonstrate that the direct/fast response due to GHG forcing is to increase the trade winds, especially over the equatorial central-western Pacific (ECWP) (5°S-5°N, 140°E-150°W), while the indirect/slow response associated with sea surface temperature (SST) warming weakens the trade winds.
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Further, analysis of the results from 19 models in phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) and the Parallel Ocean Program (POP)-Ocean Atmosphere Sea Ice Soil (OASIS)-ECHAM model (POEM) shows that the projected weakening of the trades is robust only in the equatorial eastern Pacific (EEP) ( 5°S-5°N, 150°â80°W), but highly uncertain over the ECWP with 9 out of 19 CMIP5 models producing intensified trades.
The prominent and robust weakening of EEP trades is suggested to be mainly driven by a top-down mechanism: the mean vertical advection of more upper-tropospheric warming downward to generate a cyclonic circulation anomaly in the southeast tropical Pacific. In the ECWP, the large intermodel spread is primarily linked to model diversity in simulating the relative warming of the equatorial Pacific versus the tropical mean sea surface temperature.
The possible root causes of the uncertainty for the trade wind change are also discussed.
Links
Get the data
- Publisher page n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7s75hb8 ↗
documentation · download · from data ucar edu
Where it is published
- data.ucar.edu /dataset/understanding-the-anthropogenically-forced-change-of-e… ↗
National Center for Atmospheric Research dataset page
landing page · from data ucar edu
Catalogue records · 1
- CKAN API data.ucar.edu/api/3/action/package_show?id=899fa7a6-8319-45f5-9f16-bbadf54a6… ↗
metadata API · from data ucar edu
Topics
- From keywords
- Earth & Environmental Science · Ocean & Atmospheric Science
- Inferred from text
- Climate change science 72%
Provenance · 1 source records, 8 field assertions
| Source | Key | Last seen | Raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Center for Atmospheric Research | 899fa7a6-8319-45f5-9f16-bbadf54a6f75 | 11 d ago | JSON v1 |
| Field | Assertion | Extractor | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| concepts[field].anzsrc:group:3702 | enrichment · data ucar edu | taxonomy-embedding@1.1.0 | title+keywords+description (72%) |
| concepts[field].local:field:earth-environmental | mapping · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:ocean-atmospheric | mapping · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| created_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| description | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | /notes |
| publication_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| title | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | /title |
| updated_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 |