GC10-Pliocene-20
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-gc10-pliocene-20
The warm Pliocene: Bridging the geological data and modelling communities
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Large-scale features of the tropical atmospheric circulation changes during the mid-Pliocene: results from the PlioMIP2

Ke Zhang1, Yong Sun2, and Xu Zhang2
Ke Zhang et al.
  • 1Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000 China (zhangke21@lzu.edu.cn)
  • 2State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

The mid-Pliocene (Plio; 3Ma) which has been proved to be one of the most similar paleoclimate periods for the future climate. In this study, we conduct dynamic analysis on the large-scale features of tropical Hadley and Walker cells changes by examining the PlioMIP2 simulations. It was shown that a generally weakening of Hadley circulation strength (especially for the Northern Hadley cell) and widening of Hadley cells edges are captured by most of PlioMIP2 models. In addition, the Walker cell over the Pacific Ocean in responses to mid-Pliocene warming shows a significant westward shift compared to the pre-industrial conditions. Nevertheless, our analysis also shows evident inter-model spread of the Hadley and Walker cells changes.

How to cite: Zhang, K., Sun, Y., and Zhang, X.: Large-scale features of the tropical atmospheric circulation changes during the mid-Pliocene: results from the PlioMIP2, The warm Pliocene: Bridging the geological data and modelling communities, Leeds, United Kingdom, 23–26 Aug 2022, GC10-Pliocene-20, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-gc10-pliocene-20, 2022.