Characterization of the long-term changes in moisture, clouds and precipitation in the ascending and descending branches of the Hadley Circulation

Abstract Climate model simulations and observations show that there is a poleward expansion of the Hadley Circulation (HC) as well as a strengthening of the hydrological cycle in a warming climate. However, to establish a relation between the two phenomena in present day climate, simultaneous investigations of the HC and hydrological cycle changes using observational/reanalysis data are necessary, which is limited as compared to model simulations. In this regard, the present study employs relative humidity (RH), cloud fraction (CF) and precipitation (RF) parameters of the hydrological cycle and analyse their long term changes within the HC ascending and descending regions, simultaneously. Long term RH and CF data (1979–2016) are obtained from ERA-I reanalysis, and RF from GPCP precipitation dataset. The boundaries of the HC are identified using the meridional Mass Stream Function (MSF) metric, a metric that can track the mass motion in the atmosphere in the meridional direction. The analysis brings out the spatial pattern of the distribution of trends in hydrological parameters within the HC boundaries. The trends are observed to be significantly positive at the edges of the HC ascending region and significantly negative in the regions near the HC edges, insignificant (and in some cases, negative) in the deep tropics. This pattern is more or less consistent in RH, CF, as well as RF parameters. Thus the study shows that there are regions of positive as well as negative trends within the both ascending and descending regions. The results are found to be in accordance with the poleward expansion of HC and strengthening of the hydrological cycle. Besides, a northward shift in the HC ascending regions are also indicated from the analysis of the annual cycle of trend in precipitation. The current investigation is thus envisaged to contribute to further exploration on the relation between the HC changes and the intensification of the hydrological cycle in a warmer climate.

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