The effect of Arctic sea ice loss on the Hadley circulation

One of the most robust responses of the climate system to future greenhouse gas emissions is the melting of Arctic sea ice. It is thus essential to elucidate its impacts on other components of the climate system. Here we focus on the response of the annual mean Hadley cell (HC) to Arctic sea ice loss using a hierarchy of model configurations: atmosphere only, atmosphere coupled to a slab ocean, and atmosphere coupled to a full-physics ocean. In response to Arctic sea ice loss, as projected by the end of the 21st century, the HC shows negligible changes in the absence of ocean-atmosphere coupling. In contrast, by warming the Northern Hemisphere thermodynamic coupling weakens the HC and expands it northward. However, dynamic coupling acts to cool the Northern Hemisphere which cancels most of this weakening and narrows the HC, thus opposing its projected expansion in response to increasing greenhouse gases.

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Copyright 2019 American Geophysical Union.


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Author Chemke, R.
Polvani, L. M.
Deser, Clara
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2019-01-28T00:00:00
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-07-11T19:31:28.379131
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:22333
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Chemke, R., Polvani, L. M., Deser, Clara. (2019). The effect of Arctic sea ice loss on the Hadley circulation. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7th8qqw. Accessed 02 August 2025.

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