Abstract

The Hadley cell (HC) plays an important role in setting the strength and position of the hydrological cycle. Climate projections show a weakening of the HC, together with widening of its vertical and meridional extents. These changes are projected to have profound global climatic impacts. Current theories for the HC response to increased greenhouse gases account only for atmospheric and oceanic thermodynamic changes and not for oceanic circulation changes. Here the effects of ocean circulation changes on the HC response to increased greenhouse gases are examined by comparing fully coupled and slab ocean model configurations. By reducing the warming of both the sea surface and the atmosphere, changes in ocean circulation reduce the HC response to increased CO₂ concentrations. This reduced warming suppresses convective heating, which reduces the weakening of the HC and the stabilization at low latitudes, and thus also reduces the meridional (in the Southern Hemisphere) and vertical HC expansion.