Mountains and Tropical Circulation

Abstract:

Observed tropical convection exhibits zonal asymmetries that strongly influence spatial precipitation patterns. The drivers of changes to this zonally-asymmetric Walker circulation on decadal and longer timescales have been the focus of significant recent research. Here we use two state-of-the-art earth system models to explore the impact of earth's mountains on the Walker circulation. When all land-surface topography is removed, the Walker circulation weakens by 33-59%. There is a ~30% decrease in global, large-scale upward vertical wind velocities in the middle of the troposphere, but only minor changes in global average convective mass flux, precipitation, surface and sea-surface temperatures. The zonally symmetric Hadley circulation is also largely unchanged. Following the spatial pattern of changes to large-scale vertical wind velocities, precipitation becomes less focused over the tropics. The weakening of the Walker circulation, but not the Hadley circulation, is similar to the behavior of climate models during radiative forcing experiments: in our simulations, the weakening is associated with changes in vertical wind velocities, rather than the hydrologic cycle. These results indicate suggest that mountain heights may significantly influence the Walker circulation on geologic time scales, and observed changes in tropical precipitation over millions of years may have been forced by changes in tropical orography.