Changes in the Austral Winter Hadley Circulation and the Impact on Stationary Rossby Waves Propagation

Abstract EN

The present study investigates how changes in the Hadley Cell (HC) intensity impact the stationary Rossby waves energy propagation in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) extratropics.

Composites for weak and strong HC Intensity Index (HCI) were used in this analysis.

The results for weak HC cases showed a wave train emanating from the subtropical central-west Indian Ocean in an arc-like route, with zonal wavenumber three in the polar jet waveguide, and reaching the north of South America.

For strong HC cases, the wave train is also trapped inside the polar jet waveguide with zonal wavenumber four, emanating from subtropical central-east Indian Ocean and reaching the subtropical west coast of Africa.

A weaker zonally oriented wave train with zonal wavenumber five has been found in the subtropical region with opposite polarity for weak and strong HC cases.

Over the South America, the results show that an HC weakening can lead to a very cold and rainy winter in the southwest of the continent and a mild warm and dry winter on Brazilian states of Minas Gerais and Bahia.

A pattern almost opposite was observed when the CH strengthens.