Southward Intertropical Convergence Zone Shifts and Implications for an Atmospheric Bipolar Seesaw

AbstractIn this study, southward intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) shifts are investigated in three different scenarios: Northern Hemispheric cooling, Southern Hemispheric warming, and a bipolar seesaw-like forcing that combines the latter two. The experiments demonstrate the mutual effects that northern- and southern-high-latitude forcings exert on tropical precipitation, suggesting a time-scale-dependent dominance of northern versus southern forcings. In accordance with this, two-phase tropical precipitation shifts are suggested, involving a fast component dominated by the high-northern-latitude forcing and a slower component due to the southern-high-latitude forcing. The results may thus be useful for the future understanding and interpretation of high-resolution tropical paleoprecipitation proxies and their relation to high-latitude records (e.g., ice core data). The experiments also show that Southern Ocean warming has a global impact, affecting both the tropics and northern extratropics, as seen...

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