ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – A study published in Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research highlights how one region, the South China Sea and its surrounding areas have a global impact on weather patterns.
Complex climate interactions between ocean, land, and atmosphere in this region, including the Indo Pacific Ocean, Southeast Asia, and the Tibetan Plateau, are causing more rapid climate change in this region.
However, this rapid warming is affecting weather patterns around the world, not just in the South China Sea and surrounding areas.
“This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex interactions and consequences of climate change in the South China Sea and surrounding areas, which is critical for predicting extreme weather in extratropical regions and for mitigating the broader impacts of climate change on a global scale,” ” said Song Yang, a professor from Sun Yat-sen University in Zhuhai, China, quoted from Phys, Wednesday, January 24 2024.
Researchers seek to study the characteristics of climate change in this region and how it impacts regional and global climate patterns, including how air-sea interactions in tropical and subtropical regions drive climate change.
With a deeper understanding of warming patterns in this region, researchers are also making future projections of climate change in this region and its broad global implications.
One of the characteristics of this region is the existence of three overlapping large-scale atmospheric reversal circulations, namely the regional Hadley circulation, the Walker circulation and the Asian monsoon circulation. Air moves around the world in predictable patterns. These patterns are called circulations or cells.
Circulations are very important on a regional and global scale because they connect the region with the wider world.
For example, warming in the western Pacific monsoon region and South Asia can exacerbate drought in the rest of the world thanks to air movement between the Pacific and North Africa. Changes in the South China Sea and surrounding areas could even impact weather in the Arctic.
“Climate change in the South China Sea and its surroundings is very complex. It has a significant impact in shaping not only the regional climate, but also has far-reaching impacts on weather and climate patterns around the world,” Yang said.
Researchers studying this region also want to understand future projections, both for the South China Sea and surrounding areas, as well as how changes in the region will impact climate change globally. These three overlapping circulations have shifted due to climate change.
The researchers point to expected changes to the Hadley circulation as an example, which is a cell that connects tropical and extratropical regions.
In a warmer climate, the ascending branch of the Hadley circulation would become stronger and narrower, while the descending branch would shift poleward. These changes are expected to increase dry weather and decrease humidity in extratropical regions.
As the climate warms, current climate models project increased rainfall over South Asia, East Asia, and northern Australia due to warmer sea surface temperatures, increased water vapor supply, and overlapping circulations over the South China Sea and surrounding area.
In the future, researchers will continue to explore the interrelationships of weather patterns around the world on different time scales.
“This paper seeks to catalyze further research, providing valuable contributions to understanding climate dynamics in this region and its global implications, and ultimately improving extreme weather prediction,” Yang said. (AT Network)
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