Date: Thursday, October 22, 2009 4:30 PM
Location: 366 Hollister
The large scale atmospheric circulation response to global warming will be discussed. I will start by introducing the pattern of global atmospheric circulation and simple arguments for the maintenance of the circulation. Next, a consistent pattern of global circulation change due to global warming will be presented. The state of the art climate models project an expansion of the Hadley cell and poleward shift of the midlatitude westerly winds under global warming. This circulation change is accompanied by the poleward shift of the subtropical dry zones and midlatitude storm tracks. Lastly, the extratropical circulation change is complicated by the changes in the frequency of El Nino in the future. Despite the projected El Nino-like tropical circulation change in a warming world, the circulation change under global warming is in the opposite direction to the change associated with El Nino.
Refreshments will be served at 4:15 PM
