Tropical circulation changes associated with global warming shown in satellite observations, reanalyses, and climate models

In response to the global warming trend of temperature, locally different heating distribution would affect to changes in tropical circulation. Introducing the circulation index defined by effective wind, changes of Hadley and Walker circulation intensities were investigated over the tropical area by using satellite observations, reanalyses, and coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation models. The results show increasing trends of Hadley and Walker circulation since 1979 in both satellite observations and reanalyses while models show slight decreasing trends in the period. This study would like to further discuss about reasons of different trends between observations and climate models by analyzing aspects of the hydrological cycle.