The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) narrows in response to global warming in both observations and climate models. However, a physical understanding of this narrowing is lacking. Here we show that the narrowing of the ITCZ in simulations of future climate is related to changes in the moist static energy (MSE) budget. MSE advection by the mean circulation and MSE divergence by transient ed...

The relative importance of north-south migrations of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) versus El Niño-Southern Oscillation and its associated Pacific Walker Circulation (PWC) variability for past hydrological change in the western tropical Pacific is unclear. Here we show that north-south ITCZ migration was not the only mechanism of tropical Pacific hydrologic variability during the las...

Using a comprehensive atmospheric GCM coupled to a slab mixed layer ocean, experiments are performed to study the mechanism by which displacements of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) are forced from the extratropics. The northern extratropics are cooled and the southern extratropics are warmed by an imposed cross-equatorial flux beneath the mixed layer, forcing a southward shift in the...

Tropical rainfall to first order responds to variations in Earth’s orbit through shifts of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) and changes in zonally averaged rainfall intensity. Here, a conceptual model is developed that represents both processes and their response to orbital insolation variations. The model predicts the seasonal evolution of tropical rainfall between 308S and 308N. Inso...

[1] Recent paleoproxy records suggest that the mean latitude of the Atlantic Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) varied synchronously with North Atlantic climate over a range of timescales throughout the Holocene and Last Glacial Maximum. We show that the present-day ‘‘meridional mode’’ of atmosphere-ocean variability in the tropical Atlantic is a potentially useful model for understanding th...

The intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) can shift meridionally on seasonal and longer time scales. Previous studies have shown that the latitude of the ITCZ is negatively correlated with cross-equatorial atmospheric energy transport. For example, the ITCZ shifts southward as theNorthernHemisphere cools and the northward cross-equatorial energy transport strengthens in response. It has remaine...

Two common indicators of Atlantic climate variability, viz., the North Atlantic oscillation (NAO) and the crossintertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) sea surface temperature (SST) gradient, are examined for their frequency characteristics and midlatitude-tropical links. SST anomalies north and south of the ITCZ are found to be uncorrelated on all time scales, while the sea level pressure (SLP) f...

Paleoclimate proxy evidence suggests a southward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) during times of Northern Hemisphere cooling, including the Last Glacial Maximum, 19–23 ka before present. However, evidence for movement over the Pacific has mainly been limited to precipitation reconstructions near the continents, and the position of the Pacific marine ITCZ is less well constrai...

Abstract The North Pacific Oscillation (NPO), a primary atmospheric mode over the in boreal winter, is known to trigger El Niño-Southern (ENSO) following process of which recognized as seasonal footprinting mechanism (SFM). Based on analysis model simulations from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5), we found that SFM acts differently among models, and correlation between NPO ...

We investigate the causes for a strong high latitude imposed ice (land or sea) influence on the marine Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) in the Community Climate Model version 3 coupled to a 50-m slab ocean. The marine ITCZ in all the ocean basins shift meridionally away from the hemisphere with an imposed added ice cover, altering the global Hadley circulation with an increased tropical su...